Till Death did Them Part
by Omega19x
Summary: Fate brought light and dark together. The final battle ripped them apart. But as Ryou Bakura would soon discover, it is choice, not chance, that determines one’s destiny. COMPLETE
1. Finally Free

Insert Disclaimer Here - The following is a work of fanfiction. And what does that word suggest? That this is fiction. Made by a fan. I think that's clear enough.

…

The first sensation he felt was pain, radiating across his face.

A few moments later, Ryou Bakura realized he was lying face down on what appeared to be long staircase.

"Whe..where am I?" he whispered under his breath, his eyes slowly coming into focus. Light fed in from behind him, stopping just short of illuminating the vast darkness before him. The stones were warm, still caked with sand. He had not gotten far before he apparently passed out. "I… don't… remember anything…"

He slowly sat up. His heavy body ached, and protested with all the strength it possessed. Ryou knew he must have been unconscious for a long time, several days at least, to warrant such exhaustion. It felt as though he had been lying on the stone steps for an eternity.

"The… last thing I… remember was… running into a church…" he whispered, trying to clear the clouds from his mind. "A church… that's right. And… and I heard the voice of…"

He looked down. Although he didn't remember even having it before, the millennium ring dangled from his neck. He picked up the ancient treasure, and stared at it. It was strangely cold.

"Of you, yami… You came back to me… You finally came back to me! And… and that's the last thing I…"

He stopped.

There was a strange silence. Something was missing.

Ryou blinked, surprised. He'd half expected his yami to berate him, to harangue him. The least he would have done was acknowledge his recent acquisition of the body they shared for the past several years.

But there was nothing.

"… yami?" Ryou whispered, shaking the ring a little. The metal spikes jangled as they struck against one another. But there was no voice coming from the ring, or from the adjoining soul room the spirit had crafted in Ryou's mind. It was completely empty.

"Is… Are you gone?"

He stared at the ring for what felt like a second eternity before dropping it. The metal fell lifelessly to his chest.

"I… what happened?" he whispered again.

Suddenly, something else caught his attention.

Deep within the darkness, he could hear several other familiar voices: A clear dark tone, attributable to Yugi Muoto's other self, the spirit that resided in the millennium puzzle. The rough scratchy voice of Yugi's friend, Jonouchi. The competing voice of Honda, trying vainly to get a word in edgewise. The friendly, often concerned voice of Anzu. And to his surprise, he could even recognize the gruff raspy voice of the teenage CEO, Seto Kaiba.

The whole group of his friends was at the bottom of the staircase.

"They… they must know what's going on…" he whispered, looking down into the darkness. Although he couldn't judge the distance, he assumed it would be quite a trek down.

He slowly tried to stand up, testing his legs cautiously, in case they would no longer support him.

"Did I come here with them?" Ryou asked himself aloud. "And… m..more importantly, where is… is here?"

His hand gripped the stones on the side of the wall as he took a timid first step. His stomach growled violently, a testament to the fact that it had probably been days, maybe even a week, since the last time he'd eaten. His eyes blurred and his head spun. Ryou fought to keep himself awake.

He took a few more steps, each one more assuredly than the rest, until he could see a faint light coming from the bottom of the tunnel.

The voices were growing much stronger. Ryou could hear everything clearly, as if they were directly beneath him. They were talking about the millennium eye. Ryou couldn't understand how they had obtained it. The last he remembered, it was still sitting in his apartment, on his dresser. His yami's trophy, so it would have seemed.

But from the conversation, it was evident that Seto Kaiba had somehow obtained it. And he was giving it to Yugi.

Ryou weakly reached the last few steps. And each of the voices turned quickly towards him.

"Bakura?" they whispered in unison, gasping. The millennium ring reflected in their staring eyes. It was evident to Ryou, just as it always was; they didn't know whether to be relieved or be afraid. But he could hardly focus on that.

He steadied his balance, and drew a shallow breath.

"… Wh…where am I?" Ryou blinked several times, attempting to make the three extra Yugi images disappear from his field of vision.

Jonouchi and Honda exchanged strange glances, while Anzu turned to Yugi. Kaiba, as stoic as ever, needed nobody to turn to.

"What… what happened? Please… wh..what am I doing here?" he whispered, his voice as dry as the sandstone that surrounded them.

"I think that's… the nice one…" Jonouchi finally added, still a little unsure. That was how he differentiated the two, anyway.

"The game is over. The spirit of the millennium ring is no more." Yami Yugi answered, confirming Jou's timid observation.

"I… don't… feel very well…" Ryou managed to whisper as he fell forward.

"Ryou!" Anzu shouted, jumping to the side. Jonouchi reached out, and the weak boy just collapsed right into his arms.

"Ryou? Are you okay?" Honda gasped.

"Like it matters anyway." Seto Kaiba answered for him. His mind drifted back to what brought him to Egypt in the first place. "He tried to kidnap my brother. He deserves a lot worse than what he's going to get."

"Kaiba." Yami Yugi stood between them. "The one who tried to take Mokuba was the spirit of the ring. And he's gone. For good."

The businessman snubbed such fantasy logic.

"Ryou is finally free of his control, after years of being an unwitting host." The pharaoh continued. "He won't hurt you, or anyone else. He was just a victim here."

While Yami Yugi confronted Kaiba, the other three friends were more concerned with Ryou himself.

"Are you all right?" Honda reiterated.

"Do you need to go to a hospital?" Anzu volunteered.

"Is there something we can get for you?" Honda asked again. "Speak to us…"

"… f..food…" he managed to answer before finally losing consciousness.

"Hey, I'm hungry too, but you don't see me fainting." Jonouchi snapped.

"That's not very nice." Anzu quickly snapped back.

"Come on, all of you." Yami Yugi eventually interrupted. "I think Ryou Bakura has suffered enough for now."

Honda nodded, and put one of Ryou's lifeless arms around his shoulders. Jonouchi took the other arm, and did the same, attempting to carry him back up the long flight of stairs.

"Hey, Yug." Jonouchi looked back around. "What should we do with his ring?"

Yami Yugi walked closer, taking the golden pendant in his hands. It was indeed cold to the touch. There was no trace of the spirit anywhere inside, and as is, it had only one more purpose. It was the last millennium item that he needed to collect, to place in the stone, and finally ascend to the afterlife.

"You should probably look after that." Honda added, helping him remove the ring from around Ryou's neck. "It is the last one, after all."

"A good idea, Honda." He smiled back.

"And we have a long journey ahead of us now." Anzu whispered, her voice bittersweet.

"Yes." The pharaoh smiled again. "With my friends by my side."

Anzu put her hand reassuredly on his shoulder, the best offer of encouragement she could muster in the face of realizing he would be leaving them. Meanwhile, Jonouchi and Honda silently carried Ryou Bakura out of the underground passageway, and back up to the surface. Malik Ishtar and his sister Isis were already awaiting them there. Isis would guide the pharaoh to his final challenge.

It was another few hours before Ryou even opened his eyes again.

When he finally came to, he was on a boat. He was alone in a small cabin, the weak trickle of water against the starboard side the only escape from the silence in his mind. At least they had left a generous amount of food, he thought to himself.


	2. A Sense of Normalcy

A couple of weeks had passed since the final duel between yami and hikari ended.

Yugi Muoto had defeated the pharaoh at his own game, and the king of games was finally free to move into the afterlife, to the realm of Osiris. It was a bittersweet moment. There was a rewarding sense of peace, watching someone finally complete the task he undertook three thousand years in the past, succeeding because of his faith in his friends. But for his closet companions, Jonouchi, Anzu, and Honda, there were still tears of loss. At the same time, they were mourning the loss of a good friend. Yugi was mourning the loss of his other self, but at the same time, his victory had proven that he was finally able to stand on his own merits. Fate had decreed that they were ready to separate. And that was what was best.

Ryou Bakura, on the other hand, had no such awakenings. And his yami, the evil spirit of the millennium ring, received no such ceremonies.

He tried not to dwell on it, but while things were finally going back to normal in Domino City for everyone else, nothing felt normal to him.

He certainly tried, however, to fall back into a normal routine:

Wake up from a dreamless, restless sleep to the quiet chirping of crickets outside the window. No need to wonder what time it is, or what time his body was returned to him. No need to guess about what he did during the night besides toss and turn.

Walk hazily into the bathroom. Getting dressed for school moves a lot faster when there are no open wounds to tend to, and no new scars to ponder the origin of.

Sit down and eat breakfast. The concept was almost alien to Ryou at this point. For the past few years, he'd eaten as much as he could whenever he got the chance, knowing that it might be days before he'd have the opportunity again. A calm uninterrupted meal was once a treasure. But now, it only provided another opportunity to mentally catalogue the missing portions of his memory.

Walk to school. For the first few days after returning from Egypt, Yugi and his other friends stayed close. That interest, however, waned with the presence of the pharaoh's spirit. Now, even just a week later, not a word is spoken.

Sit through class. Being fully conscious and alert simply made the hours drag on. It was a feeling Ryou was so unaccustomed to. He felt uncomfortable in the cold metal chair for so long. He felt uncomfortable inside his own skin for so long. And the strange looks of the teachers and other students did not help. Those glances were no doubt a lasting result of his awkward personality and his frequent absences. At least those he had grown accustomed to.

Eat Lunch. Although, most of the time, Ryou wasn't very hungry. Instead, he simply sat and watched everyone else's interactions.

Sit through more classes. Nothing changed. He attempted to answer questions involving things he couldn't remember, and then tried to avoid the rolling of eyes and the turning of heads.

Go home. Just as before, Ryou watched how the loss of the pharaoh brought Yugi and his other friends closer together. On most days, his mind would wander back to the common phrase – 'Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.' Now that Ryou was no longer either of these, there was no reason to keep him close at all.

Fix dinner.

Write a letter to Amane. It was a practice Ryou had recently resumed. Even if there was little to write about, the thought that someone could hear his words was comforting. It didn't seem to matter whether that someone had been deceased for years.

Work on a Monster World figurine. This was another practice that Ryou had abandoned and then resumed. It was calming, but in an empty sense.

Shower. Again, the disappearance of old scars, without the mysterious appearance of new ones, sped this process considerably. Even the wound from Battle City, a scar that haunted his skin for years, had faded.

Go to bed, thinking about the only person who dared even speak to him. Just wait for another dreamless and restless sleep to begin.

This time, however, Ryou's sleep might have been restless, but it certainly not dreamless. Not dreamless at all.


	3. The Dream

As Ryou fitfully slept, rolling dramatically from his left side to his back, a myriad of images and voices assaulted him…

A tan skinned man ran along a deserted beach under a scorching sun. The man appeared to be in his twenties, although his rough skin, deep facial scars, and shaggy white hair gave made him look much older. His eyes darted back and forth, constantly looking over his shoulder as though he were being pursued.

"No! You won't catch me!" he shouted. His feet kicked sand into the water as he ran. Although he had been running for what felt like days, he had yet to find an end to either the beach or the water. "I won't go!"

"Your time is up, Bakura." A voice bellowed from water.

A thin boat with a bipod mast appeared on the horizon. Its shape and size was similar to an ancient reed boat. The stern and bow were decorated with lotus blossoms.

"No!" he shouted back, trying to outrace the sea-faring craft. The wind, however, seemed to always be in its favor.

"There is no one at whose mercy you can throw yourself now, Bakura." The voice bellowed again. "And you cannot run from Ma'at."

"We'll see about that!" he shouted again, struggling to quicken his pace. The hot sand burned his feet, but he didn't dare to stop running.

"Your time has come, and you will be judged accordingly." The voice continued. The familiar jackal-headed god of the underworld appeared above the mast of the ship, revealing himself. "There is no escape. You will accompany me to the Hall of Ma'at."

Bakura glanced over his shoulder again. Anubis towered over the surrounding desert, his massive arms stretching across the horizon. In his left hand, he held a golden ankh, the ultimate symbol of life itself. There was no escape in sight, only certainty of capture and the trial of his soul.

"Leave me alone!" he shouted again, as if to convince himself that there was still hope. "You won't take me alive!"

"You are already dead." The god answered back, and shackles materialized on the thief's wrists and ankles. Holy chains ran through them, yanking Bakura backwards as he jumped forward in a last ditch effort to free himself from the god's grasp. "After three thousand years, your soul is finally able to stand trial for the crimes committed both before and after death."

Bakura felt his joints separate upon impact, the chains binding him. Anubis took the other ends in his human hands, and began walking back to the boat.

"You do not have a choice in this matter, Bakura." He added, bowing his head in the face of Ra. "The forty two judges of the dead await your confessions."

"Never!"

He attempted to struggle, but it was clearly futile. Anubis's palm wrapped tightly around the chains, pulling the beleaguered Bakura towards the boat. As Anubis walked over the water, Bakura thrashed through the waves.

"Help!" he finally cried out, not knowing what else to do. "Somebody! Anybody!"

"Silence." Anubis grew impatient, and the chains spun the thief's body, keeping him still. "You have disgraced the gods enough in life. Now hold your tongue."

"Hikari! Help me!" he screamed, before metal completely covered his mouth. The chains pulled tightly against his skin, rubbing it raw. "Hikari!"


	4. Decisions

Ryou woke in a cold sweat. The voice of his yami rang throughout his mind, easily drowning the morning crickets.

"… yami?" he asked out loud, catching his breath.

He looked around for a moment, unsure of where he was. He briefly considered the possibility that he had arrived in Egypt again, with someone else in control of his body, but that was impossible.

"I'm… in my bedroom." He drew another breath. "That… that was a… a dream…"

He glanced at the clock. The sun was already up. If he sat pondering it too long, he would be late for school. However, Ryou also thought to himself, it was not as though anyone would notice his tardiness.

"It was just a dream… wasn't it?" he asked himself aloud again. It felt so real. Or was it only real because Ryou desperately wanted it so? "Yami? Was… was that really you? Were you… really calling for me?"

Ryou slowly rose from the bed. His chest ached, in a manner that he had not felt since he first heard his yami's voice resonating from inside his own head. The scars, from where the millennium ring would often bind to his chest, burned with renewed fervor.

"What… what's… going on…" he struggled to straighten up, keeping his hand over his heart. "Is this… some kind of sign?"

He walked into the bathroom, and ran the tap. Staring into the mirror, he couldn't stop seeing his yami's face, gazing back at him with a pained expression. And he could feel the presence of the jackal-headed god behind him.

"I'm… loosing my mind…" Ryou attempted to reason with himself. It had been a couple of weeks since they left Egypt. And so far, he had done a decent job of sticking to his routine. "That's all… I… I shouldn't think about this… I… just have to go on with my life, and… and stop missing him… That's all…"

He splashed his face with cold water, but the illusion in his mind did not dissipate.

"It's all over… Yugi's yami went on to the afterworld…" he whispered aloud again, but that thought only made his dream seem that much more real. Anubis, after all, was one of the gods that governed the dead. And in his dream, his yami was traversing the afterworld. "And it was just a dream…"

The dream, however, could not be shaken so easily. And neither could his yami's last words – 'Hikari. Help me.'

If he even bothered to describe the dream to Yugi or the others, he knew how they would respond – The spirit was only asking for Ryou because his life was in danger. If he were safe, he wouldn't be asking. He would be taking, and using. But Ryou didn't think like that. At least, he hadn't thought like that since Battle City.

Before the morning was over, following instincts he could barely comprehend, Ryou had boarded a plane to Cairo. The only things he carried were a map, a compass, a small green-stoned necklace, and his yami's deck of duel monsters cards.

Only one thought echoed in his mind, as though it too, were decreed by fate.

'Hold on, yami. I'm coming. I'll save you!'


	5. Horus Incarnate

"You will be held here until the court is ready for you." Anubis waved his hand, and several of his underlings took control of the chains.

The thief Bakura, his wrists wound together, could not retaliate. And with his ankles tightly bound as well, he could not run either. The lesser gods simply picked up his body by the arms, and threw him in a lonely silent cell in the great hall of judgment.

"Be patient. Osiris will weigh your heart against the feather of truth, and Thoth will record your transgressions soon enough."

Bakura refused to acknowledge the deity.

"And may Ammut be prepared to devour you, should your heart be full of sin and tip the great scale."

Again, Bakura refused to acknowledge.

As the gods turned their backs, he quickly discovered that he was bound to the floor. There was still no possibility of escape.

"Fucking pharaoh." He muttered to himself, pulling at the chains. They rattled, but could not be broken, especially not by a mere spirit. "This is all your fault."

To his surprise, when he glanced up again, he saw Anubis guiding that very spirit down the great hall. The former king of Egypt stopped momentarily, despite Anubis' guiding hand.

"Bakura?" he whispered, turning to face the thief.

The chained one just coughed under his breath.

"Who exactly were you expecting, your highness?" he scoffed. He would have struck the pharaoh had he not already been restrained.

"Horus incarnate, you need not pay this criminal any heed." Anubis interrupted. "He will be dealt with accordingly."

"I am certain of that." Atemu answered quickly. "Please, allow me a few moments before we proceed."

"Of course." The god bowed to the pharaoh, who was a god in his own right. He stepped back a respectful distance, allowing Atemu to approach the chained thief.

"If you're going to pardon me, or get me out of here, you might want to do it now, pharaoh." Bakura snorted, unable to rise from the floor. "If not, then get out of my fucking face!"

"I defeated you in the shadow game weeks ago." Atemu stared at the prisoner beneath him. He should have faced judgment already.

"Yeah, well, I was doing a pretty good job running until he showed up." Bakura gestured rudely at Anubis.

"Bakura, you disgraced my father's tomb, you slaughtered hundreds if not thousands of innocent people. And you started a battle that did not end for three thousand years." Atemu spoke clearly. "You cannot run from fate."

Bakura didn't acknowledge him either. He never saw a point to acknowledging defeat, even if it was clearly upon him. He fiddled with his hands in the chains.

"You got a point to make, pharaoh?" Bakura finally laughed, although it sounded unusually empty. "You're not exactly the pure of heart either."

"On the contrary, Bakura. I have overcome my inner darkness. Yugi can testify to that." He smiled. "He bested me in a duel. He is truly ready to exist without me. And I am finally ready to rest. I learned compassion from my lighter half, something you will never understand. Therefore, my work in that realm is finally finished."

"Skip the nostalgia trip." Bakura muttered. "You're only finished because you finally managed to kill me. That's what this was all about. That's the only thing this was about!"

By this point, Anubis could no longer stand by and watch a fellow god incarnate be insulted by a lowly thief.

"Pharaoh Atemu, the scale of Ma'at awaits your presence. May your journey into the western kingdom with Osiris be a pleasant one." He bowed respectfully, guiding Atemu away from where Bakura was chained. "And as for you, you should know that treason against gods will be punished."

Bakura mumbled something under his breath.

Atemu just lowered his head.

"You will pay for the crimes you have committed against Egypt, against my people, against my friends." He added softly.

"Yeah, well it doesn't matter much now, does it." Bakura snapped. "There's only so much of me that can be devoured. And only once."

He watched Atemu descend through the winding hallway, with Anubis guiding him.

"I hope I leave a bad taste in her mouth." He added loudly, before reclining back against the stone floor of the temple. There wasn't much else he could do, except wait for fate to finally finish him off.


	6. Tombkeepers

Ryou Bakura was surprised how much he remembered from his recent trip to Egypt. Despite being unconscious most of the time he was in control of his body, he managed to find the location of the shrine of the millennium stone. Or at least, he found what was left of it.

"Yami?" he called out, whispering at first. He listened, but there was no reply. "Yami? Can you hear me? Are you here… somewhere?"

He walked cautiously towards the remains of the underground temple. It had been reduced to rubble after the pharaoh had made his way through the gate to the afterlife. There was little left of the building, and probably even less of the stone itself. The items may have survived, but were buried under so much rubble, that it would be impossible to tell.

"… Yami? I'm here… I… I came." He called out again, but still to no avail. He thought quietly to himself for a moment. "I… guess I need the ring."

"Whatever for?"

Ryou jumped at the voice behind him. He spun around, falling over his own feet into the rocks.

Standing a few feet away from him was Isis Ishtar, Malik Ishtar's elder sister and the individual who guided the pharaoh on his last journey.

"… Isis!" he exclaimed, his high-pitched voice revealing his fright.

"Ryou Bakura? What are you doing here?" she asked, looking down at the white haired boy. "And why do you need the millennium ring?"

Ryou looked around cautiously. He wasn't sure if he should tell her the truth. After a few uneasy minutes, he finally decided that Isis was a kind person, and that honesty may lead to assistance.

"I… I want to see my yami again…" he finally whispered, looking up sadly. "I… I miss him."

She studied his innocent face.

"The spirit of the ring?" she questioned.

Ryou nodded.

"I do not understand, Ryou." Isis knelt down next to the stones he had fallen into. "The pharaoh destroyed the wicked spirit of the millennium ring, in the last shadow game. You should be grateful. You will no longer be possessed or harmed."

He looked up at Isis with a distraught expression.

"… I… Yugi was able to play his yami in a duel to set him free… he got to test… whether he was ready or not to separate. You said so yourself." he whispered. "I never got to say goodbye… One minute he was there, and the next… he was gone. And… and they took my ring… I never even got to say goodbye."

Isis sighed. It went against her better judgment to say anything, especially in regard to the spirit of the millennium ring itself. But Ryou's deep brown eyes struck a chord deep within her heart. He deserved just as much closure as Yugi Muoto, because like Yugi, he too shared a body with another spirit for years. He probably shared it longer, even if he was unaware of it at first. If fate brought one of them together, then fate was responsible for the other as well.

"He is in the afterlife now." She finally answered.

"You mean, even if I could find the ring… I… I wouldn't be able to see him? Or… or talk to him?"

Isis shook her head.

"No. You would not be able to do that, even if you were to find the ring. It has been buried here, with the rest of the items and the millennium stone." She softly replied.

"Then there's nothing I can do?" Ryou looked up, tears forming in his eyes. The vision from his dream continued to flash across his mind, haunting him. "Isis, I have to… I just have to see him. I… I miss him. I… I want to be with him again…"

She studied the ground. There was one way, and she debated for several minutes before finally revealing it.

"That's… not entirely true." She finally spoke again. "Fate provides us one way."

Ryou glanced up.

"I'll… do anything, Isis. Please."

She folded her hands in her lap, and turned to face the spirit of the ring's former host.

"Now that the dark god, Zorc has finally been destroyed, the millennium stone has a new purpose. It serves as a gateway into the afterlife." She whispered calmly, selecting her words carefully. "If the items are placed inside it again, that gateway will open. The soul who does so will be permitted to enter the afterlife."

"You mean… they'll die?" he gasped.

"No. Not as long as they do not utter the names of the gods. The names of the great gods are like magic spells. As long as the soul does not address a god, the gods will not be able to sense that their realm has been breeched. And you will be free to leave it, and come back to the realm of the living."

"Oh…" Ryou's mind raced.

"It would allow someone to make a final pilgrimage to visit a loved one. To see that they reach the great western kingdom. To offer a bit of closure for those still living." She smiled weakly. "But they are not to change the course of fate, merely watch it."

"Isis… I… I have to go there." Ryou finally whispered, standing up again. He pulled against one of the larger rocks, forcing it to the side. Grunting, he picked up several smaller rocks, tossing them to the side as well. "I have to…to find the millennium stone and… and the seven items… I have to see my yami again!"

He continued digging in the rubble, hoping to see a glimmer of gold in the Egyptian sunlight.

"Ryou, this is a dangerous ritual. It has never been performed before. It has only been written about." Isis attempted to dissuade him. However, the more she spoke, the more determined the white-haired boy became.

"I… I don't care." He winced as he finally moved a large boulder, slamming into it with all of his body weight. "I have to see him. I have to be with him. One last time."

The boulder rolled over other rocks, breaking them into smaller, more manageable pieces. Isis watched it crash into the sand, tossing fine grains in all directions.

"If that is your wish, then may fate watch over you, Ryou Bakura." She lowered her head. "I will return with Malik and Rishid. They are stronger than I am. They can help you uncover the items in this rubble."

Ryou nodded respectfully.

"Thank you, Isis." He smiled weakly. "Thank you very much."

"You are welcome, Ryou." She answered softly, and made her way back home. As she disappeared in the distance, Ryou resumed digging. If the dream were real, then he knew he didn't have much time. With their help, perhaps he would be able to see his yami before his soul was judged. He would at least get to tell him goodbye, and maybe even more than that.

"I'm…coming, Yami." He whispered again, just as before. "I'm coming…"


	7. Phone Call

It was the middle of the night when Yugi Muoto heard the phone ring in the Kame Game Shop. The strange alarm blasted through the darkness like swords of revealing light. It startled him, and for a moment, he even mistook the dream he was having for an actual dueling tournament.

"No! Not my silent swordsman!" he gasped, falling out of the bed.

He blinked a couple of times, and looked around the room. It most certainly wasn't Kaiba Land.

"… oh… it's the phone…" he whispered to himself, wiping the sand from his eyes. "I wonder who would be calling at this hour…"

As he opened the door, he heard his grandfather's voice.

"Yugi! Are you awake? The phone is for you." He called out, climbing tiredly back up the stairs.

The young duelist walked wearily out of his room, and looked down the stairs.

"For me?"

"Yes."

"But it's… like two in the morning." He yawned, still rubbing his eyes.

"Here, just when I thought your adventures regarding Egypt were over. Here comes yet another phone call." Sugoroku Muoto mused, handing his grandson the phone.

"Egypt?" he asked, taking the receiver. "Hello?"

It was Malik Ishtar.

"Yugi, I'm sorry to call at what must be such a late hour for you, but Isis just returned home with strange news. I was wondering if you knew something about it." He spoke quickly, yet politely.

"What is it, Malik?"

"One of your friends is here in Egypt, trying to dig up the millennium items!"

Yugi gasped, almost dropping the phone.

"But why?" he shouted. "There's nothing else they need to do! And… and all of my friends were with me in school today. They would have said something about going to Egypt. Are you sure?"

His mind raced. He had eaten lunch with Jonouchi, Anzu, and Honda. If any of them were interested in the millennium items, he knew that they would ask him first. He had seen Otogi during his last class. The two had agreed to play Dungeon Dice Monsters the next weekend. And he knew someone like Seto Kaiba wouldn't be interested in the items in the slightest.

"Clear as crystal." He answered. "Isis saw Ryou Bakura at the site of the former shrine. He's digging into the rubble as we speak."

Yugi gasped again.

"Bakura!" he nearly dropped the phone again. "But the pharaoh destroyed the evil spirit!"

"It is not the evil spirit that is trying to recover the items. It is Ryou Bakura. His former host." Malik clarified. "He told Isis that he was trying to reach the spirit of the ring, to at least say goodbye to him."

Yugi stood in the hallway, holding the phone. He was downright stunned.

"But why? Ryou's finally free. He doesn't have the spirit taking over his body, or hurting him, or pulling him into the shadow realm! What more could he want?"

"Yugi, perhaps we should have at least given him time to make peace with the spirit. You had a chance to confront the pharaoh in a duel, and to wish him a safe journey through the afterlife." Malik added. "Ryou did not have that luxury, even though he too shared his mind and body with another entity for years."

Yugi looked down at the floor.

"Maybe… we should have." He whispered, but soon changed his tone. "But that doesn't mean he should dig up the millennium items! Do they still have power? What if he accidentally…"

"Isis will make certain he does nothing dangerous with them." Malik interrupted. "And there is a ritual that will send him to the afterlife to see his yami one last time."

Yugi quieted his breathing.

"Then… why are you calling me?"

"You know the power of friendship more than anyone. That is what you taught me." Malik smiled. "And right now, Ryou Bakura needs his friends by his side. You are the only person who knows exactly what he's going through."

Yugi nodded.

"You're right, Malik." He sighed peacefully. "I will try to get a flight to Egypt first thing in the morning."

"Thank you, Yugi." Malik added. "When Ryou comes back from seeing the spirit of the millennium ring, it will be good for him to have a friend nearby."

"Of course." Yugi nodded. "I will make sure all of his friends are there."

Malik said his farewells, and hung up the phone. Yugi turned to face his grandfather, and inform him, yet again, that he needed to fly to Egypt on a moment's notice. Yugi wasn't concerned that he would say now; the elder man was used to that by now anyway.

He was more concerned about Ryou, someone he had hardly even spoken to in the past few weeks.


	8. Millennium Ritual

The Egyptian sun was setting by the time the four of them had uncovered most of the millennium stone. Rishid had found the ankh and the scale. Isis had uncovered her tauk, as well as Yugi's millennium puzzle. Malik found his rod and the millennium eye. And Ryou Bakura sat holding the cold, empty ring.

"That's the last one." He smiled, pressing the gold against his chest as though he wanted to keep it warm. "…When can we begin?"

"As soon as you are ready." Isis answered. She exchanged worried glances with Rishid and Malik. They both held their tongues. "But remember, Ryou. Once you cross into the afterworld, they will not see you or even sense you unless you call them by name. You will be safe. If you do, however, they will be free to punish you for your intrusion."

Ryou nodded softly, his hand instinctively patting his left pocket. His yami's dueling deck was inside, along with the necklace his father had also brought back from Egypt.

"I understand, Isis." He stood up slowly, and walked over to the millennium stone. "And thank you."

"You are welcome." She whispered back, following him.

Ryou carefully placed the millennium ring in the center of the stone tablet. Taking the millennium items from the other three Egyptians, he placed them one at a time in the stone.

"There…" he breathed a nervous sigh. "That should do it."

"Very well." Isis nodded. "Millennium stone. Open a gateway to the world beyond, so that this visitor might pass, undetected, into the realm of the gods."

She knelt by the stone, and offered her prayers. Malik and Rishid bowed their heads in mutual respect. Ryou took a step forward as well.

A white light emanated from the stone, engulfing Ryou Bakura. His body gave off a faint glow for a few moments, before it collapsed lifelessly to the ground. Malik and Rishid rushed closer. However, they failed to catch the pale frame before it smashed into the stones.

His spirit separated, floating translucent above the body. Ryou had scarcely enough time to realize he had actually become a disembodied spirit before the stone pulled him inside. In another instant, he was gone.

"What happened?" Malik asked, picking up Ryou's body, and holding it tightly in his arms.

"Is he alive?" Rishid asked.

Isis slowly rose, and placed her fingers on Ryou's neck.

"He is still alive. Though, barely." She answered. "His spirit has left his body."

"Then we must keep it safe until it returns." Malik quickly responded. It was tradition, after all. The spirit must have a perfect body to return to, just as a pharaoh's body must remain in the best condition possible to properly make the journey into the western kingdom.

"Yes. That is our duty." Isis nodded her assent. "Did you speak with the former host of the pharaoh?"

"Yes." He nodded back. "But he will not arrive for some time."

"Still, it will be important." She smiled. "Who better to help this young man grieve for such loss, than someone who has experienced the exact same thing?"

Rishid and Malik agreed, their attention focused on the unconscious body of Ryou Bakura. Silently, they all wished his spirit a safe passage.


	9. Arrival and Reunion

Ryou, meanwhile, awoke to find himself in a long hallway. Grey stones lined the walls and floors. And roughly two feet away from him, a jackal-headed man was leading an older man up a set of stairs.

He blinked a couple of times. The old man glanced over at Ryou, unsure if he was truly seeing another spirit. Anubis, however, paid no heed, and went about his duty undisturbed.

"The… the person can see me, but the god can't…" Ryou whispered, and stood up. A few moments later, Anubis appeared again, crossing him in the opposite direction. "I… I have to find my yami. Before it's too late."

He did not have to search far, however. Following Anubis, he came to a large opening. As soon as he reached the end of the hallway, he saw exactly who he was looking for.

The thief Bakura slouched on the floor in a dank prison cell. His hands and feet were chained to the ground, the reigns so tight that he could not even stand up. His soul looked exhausted, hopeless even, as though he were merely waiting to be executed.

He looked so unusual in his true form. Ryou had grown accustomed to seeing his yami in his own body, as though he were a mirror's reflection. But this was his proper body, with dark leathery skin, shaggy white hair, and several frightening scars. And it was truly a sight to behold.

"… Yami?" he whispered, stepping closer.

Bakura noticed him instantly, rubbing his eyes.

"Anubis, if this is one more damn mirage… I swear…" he grumbled, blinking again.

"Yami? Is that you?"

"Ryou?" he gasped, sitting up sharply. The chains pulled at his body as he crawled forward. "Ryou? What the hell happened! The pharaoh killed you too!"

The thief reached out as far as his shackled hand could go. Ryou immediately dropped to his knees at his yami's side.

"I'm not dead, Yami." He weakly answered.

"What do you mean 'You're not dead.' You're in the afterworld if that dog-headed freak didn't explain it well enough to you." Bakura snapped. "What'd he do, dammit."

"I'm not dead." Ryou repeated himself. "And the gods… they can't see or hear me."

Bakura blinked.

"What?"

"I… I found the buried millennium items. And I put them back into the stone." He whispered. "It opened a gateway, so that I could see you again."

Bakura felt his tongue drop through his chest. His hikari had placed the items into the stone, possibly making a contract with the darkness, only for the purpose of seeing him again?

"See me again?" he could barely speak.

"I… I couldn't stand it, Yami." Ryou looked back up at him, with sad eyes. "I… I tried to go on with my life. I tried to get back in a daily routine. But… I… I don't like it. I… I don't like being alone. Yugi was able to choose whether he wanted to be separated… I…"

"Well, what about that pharaoh-runt and all his little friends?" the thief scoffed.

"What about them?" Ryou answered. "They… they don't talk to me now that you're gone."

Bakura hid a smirk.

"Nobody does. I… You were the only one who I could talk to. And… and without you in my head… it's… it's very lonely…" he weakly admitted. "I… I don't want to separate… I don't want you gone."

"Well, you're going to have to get used to it, hikari." Bakura rolled his eyes. "You might not be dead. But I am. The minute they take these chains off, a crocodile-headed mutt is going to rip my heart from my chest, and tear her teeth through my soul. So you might as well get your ass back to the other side while you still can."

Ryou gasped.

"If you can't stand being alone, then trust me. You don't want to see that."

The pale soul trembled. The thought of his yami being brutally devoured rolled through his mind over and over again.

"I… I don't want that to happen, Yami…"

"Well, it's going to happen."

Ryou crawled closer, and put his hands over those of his yami.

"How can you be so sure?"

"Sometimes I think you need to be locked back up in your stupid head." He growled. "I'm about to be put on trial, idiot. For everything I've done in the past three thousand years. I'm not exactly what you'd call a model Egyptian citizen."

"Isn't there anything you can… can say in your defense?"

"I can deny it all I want, but it won't change anything." He lowered his head. "They're going to weigh my heart against the feather of Ma'at, and forty-two judges are going to know that everything I just said was a complete lie."

He just glanced at the wall, refusing to say anything else. But that didn't matter to Ryou.

"Just… take this." Ryou eventually whispered, almost jumping as he reached into his pocket. He pulled out the necklace. It was rather plain for a piece of jewelry, a small green stone, carved into the shape of a stag beetle, welded to a tiny chain. "I almost forgot…"

"What's that?" Bakura asked, staring at the tiny rock.

"My… my dad brought it back from… from Egypt. A long time ago. He said the hieroglyphs said something like 'I miss you.' Or… something like that. I can't remember…"

"I can read that, hikari." He sneered. While he couldn't really read them, given his past as a thief, not a scribe, he at least recognized some of the characters from the walls of the tombs he had looted. And he knew he had seen something like that before, although he couldn't quite remember where.

"Well… I… I want you to have it, yami."

The thief slid the necklace over his greasy white mane.

"Thanks." he muttered under his breath. Gratitude was never his strong suit. "I don't… exactly have anything for you."

"It's okay, yami. You don't have to." Ryou smiled. "I'm… just glad to be with you…"

The hikari smiled. It was not the best of circumstances, but they were together, even if only for a brief moment. And that was all that mattered.


	10. Charges

"Come, Bakura." Anubis called out as he entered the hallway. "Osiris, and the forty two judges are ready. You will now stand trial!"

The jackal-headed deity approached the cell with calm, deliberate footsteps. Ryou stared up at the god, terrified that he would be seen. But Anubis passed right through him, as though he didn't even exist. Bakura gasped for a moment. His hikari was telling the truth about not being dead.

"Yami…" Ryou gasped, as Anubis took Bakura's chains in his hand, and picked him up off the stones. Unable to escape, although not due to a lack of trying, the former king of thieves was dragged along behind him.

Ryou just sat there, frozen in shock and despair.

"Ryou! Please!" he called out, jerking his neck around to see his hikari one last time. "Ryou!"

His former host turned around, and their eyes met again.

"I… I don't know what I can possibly do… but… I'll… I'll think of something!" he answered back, quickly rising to his feet.

"Hikari!" Bakura shrieked, as Anubis strode through the great hall of Ma'at, towards the main throne room. Ryou raced alongside, struggling to keep up.

"I won't leave you, yami." He whispered, and grabbed onto the chains. "I'll be beside you until the very end, no matter what it is... Even if… if you get… get devoured!"

The thief Bakura did not even notice when Anubis dragged him through the final set of doors. His mind, instead, was focused completely on what his former host had just said. The reply left him nothing short of awestruck.

"You'd do that?"

"You're my yami." Ryou answered, and turned to face the many eyes that stared through him.

Anubis dropped behind a tall podium, presided over the trial and judgment ceremony. A massive scale, similar to the millennium one that Ryou had unearthed, rested at his feet.

The tiny goddess Ma'at, sat quaintly on top of the great scale of judgment. Pinned to her headband was a large feather.

In front of the scale stood another deity, with the head of an ibis. The scribe, Thoth, husband of Ma'at, stood patiently, tablet in hand, in order to record the judgment of the dead.

Ryou's eyes scanned the room. Sitting in rows beside Osiris were forty-two other gods, just as his yami had described earlier.

Meanwhile, Bakura had risen to his feet at the command of Anubis.

"What… what's going on?"

"Like I told you…" he whispered to Ryou while the gods of judgment were still speaking amongst themselves. "This is a trial."

"Lord Osiris, I present to you Bakura, of Kul Elna." Anubis genuflected in the presence of the other god.

Bakura scoffed, refusing to even share a glance with Osiris. He glanced back down to Ryou. The trial was about to start. He only had a few moments to say anything to the boy who he had called his host for most of a decade.

"It… It's been nice… in your mind." Bakura whispered, fiddling with his hands again. "Much better than the ring."

Ryou glanced upward.

"A lot less lonely." He offered a smile, but his attention was quickly diverted again. Ryou couldn't hide the small smile that came as a reply, even despite the circumstances.

"We shall now read forth the charges. Do you deny them, Bakura?" Anubis announced again.

"What does it matter!" he shouted back. "Just get on with it already!"

"The deceased has spoken, Lord Osiris." The jackal-headed deity spoke calmly. "May Thoth record his denial, and may the judges begin speaking their verdicts."

Osiris nodded, and turned to his left. One of the more human-like figures on the first row stood up.

"This is it." Bakura whispered under his breath. He glanced down at Ryou. By the time the judges finished, his former host would probably find being alone a much safer proposition.


	11. Trial

As the first judge stood, Ryou nervously clutched the chains at his yami's feet. Bakura heard them rattle beneath him, but paid little heed. The trial had already begun.

"On the first great law – Thou shall not kill, nor bid anyone killed." The god spoke. Bakura just stared at his own feet. "You have directly killed thousands of men, and indirectly caused the death of millions of souls. You are guilty."

As he read, the ibis-headed Thoth recorded the verdict. Osiris nodded to the second to stand. The procedure quickly became obvious, even after only one god.

"On the second great law – Thou shall not commit adultery or rape." The next judge announced. "You pillaged several young women, resulting in several illegitimate descendants. And for generations, they have shared in your punishment. You are guilty."

Ryou looked up at him, somehow knowing his yami was capable of that. And he knew in his heart that somehow, he must be one of those descendants, hundreds of generations later.

"On the third great law – Thou shall not avenge thyself, or burn with rage."

Ryou knew there was no denying that one. Bakura knew it too.

"You have done nothing except those crimes for the past three thousand years. Your hatred so bottomless, that it carried beyond death. Even in the presence of Anubis, you cursed the pharaoh. I find you guilty, and filled with vengeance."

"Righteous vengeance." Bakura couldn't stay silent. "He destroyed my village! Murdered my family! Everyone I knew!"

"Silence." Anubis shouted.

"Oh yami, be careful…"

When the prisoner had quieted down, the next judge stood up.

"On the fourth great law – Thou shall not cause terror." The god spoke. "You brought fear to numerous kingdoms and times. Your name is synonymous with terror, in many languages. You are guilty."

"On the fifth great law - Thou shall not assault anyone or cause anyone pain." The next god stood, facing Bakura. "The numbers of those you have injured are just as many as those you have killed. Even after death, you have caused much pain. Even to the one who housed your spirit in his body."

Ryou glanced up at the judge. He was talking about him.

"You caused that boy endless pain and suffering."

"It… wasn't all… suffering…" he whispered, staring up at his yami. "… You… you did save me… that one time in Battle City…"

"It wasn't all suffering!" he repeated aloud, compelled to say something with Ryou present. But his memories were hard to ignore. Thoughts of the boy's unconscious body quickly filtered through the eyes of the gods, along with images of his torn and beaten flesh.

"You are guilty."

Another stood up.

"On the sixth great law – Thou shall not cause misery." The deity stared down at Bakura with contempt. "I speak for everyone whom you have hurt. Misery clings to you like a shadow. Guilty."

The gods continued.

"The eighth great law – Thou shall not cause the shedding of tears." The next stood. Bakura glanced down at Ryou. The boy looked as though he was about to burst into tears at the god's very statement. "The tears of sadness caused by your rampages could fill the Nile. Guilty."

"The tenth law - Thou shall not steal nor take that which does not belong to you." Another god spoke. "Self-appointed King of Thieves. The mockery of your royal title speaks to this end. Everything you ever obtained was stolen, from simple food in the marketplace to the ring of wisdom, the millennium ring."

"You do what you can to survive." Bakura managed to counter.

"And for that, you will be rightfully punished."

Ryou glanced up at his yami, just imagining how difficult his life must have been.

"The eleventh law - Thou shall not take more than thy fair share of food." The god stated simply, in a quieter voice than the last. "Your gluttonous feast after the murder of one of the high priests comes to mind first. And that was not the only transgression. You are guilty."

Ryou just watched. There was definitely a pattern forming here.

"Sixteenth law - Thou shall not use fiery words nor stir up any strife. Does this sound familiar? 'One thief will start a war!' You are guilty."

Ryou just sat and listened, clutching the chains at his yami's feet. The charges came one after the other. And the more they came, the more he wished he didn't have to listen.

Thou shall not use fiery words nor stir up any strife. Thou shall not speak or act deceitfully to the hurt of another. Thou shall not speak scornfully against others. Thou shall not ignore the truth or words of righteousness. Thou shall not judge anyone hastily or harshly… And the verdict was always guilty.

As each deity took his seat again, Bakura grew more hopeless. And that, in Ryou's mind, was far more tragic than listening to how many gods wanted to condemn him.

"Yami… please… don't lose hope yet…"

"Twenty second law - Thou shall not disrespect sacred places." The first god on Osiris' left side stood. "You destroyed many of our temples, disrespected the tombs, and ravaged the Shrine of Wedju. Guilty."

"… oh yami…" Ryou whispered, still listening.

Thoth rapidly wrote down each verdict on a stone tablet, with Ma'at looking on from the scales. Bakura could offer very little in his defense, but Ryou doubted that the ibis-headed deity would have recorded it anyway.

"Twenty fourth law - Thou shall not be angry without good reason." The next god stood, and watched the thief silently for what felt like an eternity. "Not guilty."

The other gods turned their heads, and a low roar descended upon the chamber.

"Bakura possessed bottomless anger, but it was not without reason."

The white-haired thief stood dumbfounded for a moment. One of the gods was actually speaking in his favor. He glanced down at Ryou, whose face was beaming.

"Maybe that will help!" he exclaimed.

"Probably not." Bakura attempted to remain reasonable. He didn't want to give his hikari a false sense of hope. One innocent verdict in the first twenty-four didn't spare anyone from Ammut's belly. Though it did give him a slight bit of encouragement. He was about to die a second time, but he wasn't going to do it idly.

The gods continued.

"Twenty ninth law - Thou shall not despise nor anger the gods." The deity glanced around the room, eyes falling on Anubis. "Your hatred of Horus incarnate was legendary, thief Bakura. As is your behavior now."

"Does it look like I particularly care?" Bakura fumed, finally finding his voice.

"… be careful yami… You're… in enough trouble already…"

"Stop with this pathetic trial! You're going to condemn me anyway! What does it matter how many people I slaughtered? How many gods I took down with me? How many years of my imprisonment in that item I spent plotting my revenge against the people who destroyed my life!"

"You will be silent!" Anubis shouted, pointing his staff at the shackled thief.

"I've heard enough of this shit!" Bakura shouted again, struggling in his chains.

"On the count of anger towards the gods, he is guilty." The deity continued, as though the interruption didn't even occur. Several more gods stood up, and gave their verdicts. Thoth recorded each of them thoughtfully as Bakura sunk back into defeat.

Ryou watched his yami, clutching the chains tighter. He knew what Isis had told him – that he should not attempt to change fate, merely watch it happen. But there had to be something he could do.

"Thirty third law - Thou shall not steal from nor disrespect the dead."

Bakura simply stood there. That was the law written against tomb robbers. It was the law that, when broken while living, the punishment would be nothing short of death by impalement.

"By your actions, pharaoh Akunumkanon, a living embodiment of Horus, was sentenced to a second death!" the god shouted. "You deserve second death for this crime alone, vile spirit."

"My family got the same treatment, thanks to him!" Bakura shouted back. "He deserved it!"

"Silence!" Anubis roared again. "I have heard enough from you!"

The jackal-headed god strode through the hall, taking Bakura's chains in his hands. A wave of white magic coursed through the metal, sending waves of pain through Bakrua's spiritual body.

"… Stop it!" Ryou shouted, although he couldn't be heard. The chains were ripped from his invisible hands.

Bakura fell to his knees, forcing himself to stay silent. He knew a scream of terror would only give the pharaoh's guards satisfaction. Gods weren't any different.

"I hope his soul was devoured too!" he spat out, staring back up at Osiris with fire in his eyes. "And if I had the chance, I'd kill him a third time too!"

"You will be silent!" Osiris repeated, while Anubis delivered another blast of magical energy. Sparks flew through the tips of Bakura's white mane, but he still kept his composure.

"On the thirty sixth great law - Thou shall not interfere with sacred rites. You are guilty!"

"On the thirty eigth great law - Thou shall not act with guile or insolence." The next god stood up, while Anubis kept the imprisoned soul from committing this same sin yet again. "I think we have seen enough of this. Guilty."

"I'm not afraid of you! I'm not afraid of any of you!" Bakura shouted, thrashing in the chains.

Ryou trembled, watching the spasms of pain erupting from his yami. Tears burst from his eyes.

"They're… going to take my yami away… Just… Just like Yugi and his yami did…" he whispered to himself, leaning on the tiny platform where his yami was still struggling to stand. "He's going to be devoured… and…. And I'll have nothing… nothing left at all…"

"I'll take you down with me!" Bakura screamed, thrashing wildly. His fist, through either fate or chance, managed to connect with Anubis's jaw. The god fell backwards from the platform and the entire room fell silent.

Ryou gasped. Bakura dared not even speak.

"This is enough!" Osiris finally stood, towering over the other judges. He pointed his staff at the thief. "There is no redemption for you, Bakura. And were there a fate worse than second death, I would condemn you to it."

The god's divine voice echoed in the chamber.

"But for now, you will be silent!" A ball of white energy resonated from his staff. Bakura's eyes widened as the blast was hurled towards him. There was nowhere he could move to avoid it, and nothing he could do to stop it.

The massive attack struck. Were it not for the chains holding him in place, his spirit would have broken the walls of the chamber as it crashed through the hall of Ma'at. As the dust cleared, his body laid silent and motionless on the platform, chains still wrapped around it.

Osiris took his seat, and the last few judges delivered their verdicts with quiet voices. They were all guilty.


	12. Contemplation

"… Yami?" Ryou whispered, crawling onto the platform. As before, his actions went unnoticed by the gods. "Yami?"

His trembling hands shook the unconscious body, but it gave no response. The blast from Osiris' weapon could have destroyed an entire world. Ryou could only sit and imagine what it could do to one tiny spirit.

"… Yami…" Ryou felt the tears fall down his cheeks. The room was silent again. His mind was silent again. And it would always be silent. "It's not fair…"

Whether or not they were truly ready to separate was irrelevant.

"Fate… fate brought us together. Isis said so… I… I don't want to lose you… Please… don't leave me all alone…"

Ryou laid his head over his yami's lifeless spirit. Many images and sounds poured through his fragile mind.

Yugi and the pharaoh were joined by fate, as Isis had revealed during that final duel. Fate had chosen them, not only to save the world, but also to save each other. At least, Ryou thought to himself, that's what Yugi had said during the last duel with the pharaoh.

The pharaoh had learned compassion from Yugi. He had learned, when things looked impossible, he could turn to his friends. He learned to protect them and help them…

"Protect them from people like me…" Ryou finally whispered aloud.

He looked at his yami. He had certainly not learned compassion in these past few years. Or if he had, he only displayed it in a few, unconnected moments. Ryou knew there was a brief moment in Battle City where his yami had saved his life. He took a strong attack that was meant for Ryou. He protected him from the red dragon of Osiris.

But that was only one moment.

It was one moment in years of danger and abuse, of wounds and sickness. It was one moment through years of having his body taken away, having it used against his will, and then being returned to him at its weakest points, just so he can pull himself back together again. His yami would use him, and then expect him to pick up the pieces, nurse their shared body back to health, and then readily give it up again.

And yet, despite all of this, Ryou thought to himself, when it's taken all away, nothing's left!

"Despite all of that, yami… I… I know you are capable of compassion… You… you have to be…" another tear slid down his cheek. "You… just now… in… in that cell… You didn't want to see me in pain. You wanted to protect me… from watching you die again…"

Ryou rubbed his eyes, remembering what his yami had said to the gods – that he would take them down as well.

"You… could have sent me in your place, couldn't you, yami… You could have seen to it that I… I died too… But you didn't…" he whispered. "It's… a start… anyway… You just… needed more time. That's it. Just more time."

He looked back up at the gods.

"But that wasn't all of what Isis said, was it…" he continued to think aloud. "She said that Yugi learned something from the pharaoh too. He… he gained confidence. He… he used to be shy… with no friends… and… and lonely… before the pharaoh came."

The judges began a procession out of their seats. The second part of the trial was about to begin.

"You… were a lot like me…" Ryou whispered to himself.

Years of co-existing in the same body with the pharaoh had given Yugi a new sense of self-esteem. He had made numerous friends, won dueling tournaments, even saved the world. Ryou, on the other hand, was right back where he started.

"I… I guess I've learned about as much from you as… as you have from me, yami…" he rubbed his hand over the thief's scarred face. The other spirit still didn't move. "Yugi learned bravery… but… all I can do I sit here… and… and watch them take you away again…"

Suddenly, Ryou looked up.

"Wait…" he whispered. "I… I'm sitting here…"

He looked down at his yami.

"Yami, that's it!" he shook the silent body again, no longer trying to wake him up. "We… we are just like Yugi and his yami. It's… just we… we aren't ready to separate… And… and this is the test! This is the game!"

Ryou could hardly believe what he was saying. But he felt in his soul that it was true.

"I… I learned enough bravery from you… to… to get here, didn't I?" he whispered to the unconscious soul. "I'm in the chamber of…"

He froze, quickly covering his own mouth. He almost said the name of a god, a magic word that would make him real to the gods around him.


	13. Judgement

The room was still eerily silent. The judges sat along with Osiris. They were not needed for the second portion of the trial, the weighing of the heart of the accused against Ma'at's divine feather.

Anubis strode towards them. Glancing down at Bakura, he knelt, reaching inside the thief's bare chest. His hand pulled forth a silent heart.

"Lord Osiris, I present to you the heart of Bakura, the king of thieves, along with the record of his crimes for the past three thousand years, as transcribed by Thoth, master of wisdom." He bowed before the other gods. "May we proceed?"

"Yes." Osiris answered.

The frail goddess Ma'at stood on the great scales. She removed the feather from her band, and placed it on one side.

"This is the feather of truth. Should the soul of this spirit weigh equal to it, regardless of his crimes, he will be permitted entry into the western kingdom. Should the scale not be in balance, he will be cursed with the fate of all the wicked."

Anubis nodded, and another door opened.

The goddess of Ammut approached the great scale. She was as fearsome as Ryou could have possibly imagined. She had the head of a crocodile, the forequarters of a lion, and the hindquarters of a hippopotamus. And the deity appeared pleased with the thought of ridding the spiritual plane of the great thief once and for all.

"Then let the judgment be decided!" Anubis bowed, and lifted the heart for all of the other gods to see.

Ryou watched, horrified.

"I'm… I'm here… in this chamber… I… I have to be here for a reason! I… there has to be a reason, yami…" his hands trembled as he spoke, eventually reaching his pocket. His eyes grew wide. "Duel Monsters. That's it!"

Ryou looked back at the jackal-headed creature that carried his yami's heart with a new sense of vigor.

That was the answer, the entire reason that he had come here, Ryou thought to himself. If a duel could prove the readiness of the pharaoh to enter the afterlife, it just might be enough to prove that lack of readiness for the king of thieves. It just might be enough to save him from a second death, and give them both a chance to learn everything that Yugi and his yami were able to learn. It just might work…

Anubis placed Bakura's heart on the scale, and it began to tilt wildly. Ma'at, trying as she might to steady the great scales, could not. The sheer force shook her from its top, sending her into the waiting arms of Anubis.

"What is this?" Osiris questioned the great goddess of order. "Why is your scale moving so chaotically?"

"It cannot weigh the evil of this man." She answered. "There is that much imbalance."

Ryou watched the scale move, trembling as he somehow found the strength to stand up.

Somewhere, deep inside of him, he knew what fate was asking him to do. Success would give him everything he not only wanted, but also needed. The cost of defeat, on the other hand, was immeasurable, far more so than his yami's soul.

"His heart will break the scale!" she shouted, pleading for Osiris to stop. The sides swung wildly, crashing into the floor of the great chamber. The sheer force shook the entire temple, and threatened to tear it from its very foundations. It sent Ryou flying from his feet.

"Then judgment has spoken." The great lord of the dead added.

Anubis bowed his head, and took Bakura by the chains again. His body still unresponsive, the god unceremoniously dragged him towards the great devourer. Ryou reached out again, but his hands passed right through them both.

"Ammut, his heart, body, and soul are yours." Anubis bowed to the other goddess, and removed the blackened heart from the great scale of judgment.

Ryou gulped.

It was now or never.

"… I… I have to stop this!" he whispered, and dashed to the scale just before Ammut could even stare at the heart of Bakura. "… I… I have to save my yami!"

He stood in front of Osiris, pulling a deck of cards from his right pocket. It was the deck built by his yami prior to the Battle City tournament. Sweat dripped with tears from Ryou's cheeks as he struggled to push his fear deep down inside of him.

This was it.

"Osiris!" he shouted, his voice echoing clearly through the chamber, causing all of the gods to freeze in their tracks. "I order you… to stop this trial! And face me! In a duel!"


	14. A Fate Most Feared

Meanwhile, the clan of tomb keepers kept a watch on Ryou's unconscious body, awaiting the arrival of Yugi Muoto. They had taken turns holding vigil during the strange ceremony. While Isis and Malik waited for Yugi outside their underground home, Rishid was standing guard over Ryou.

However, unbeknownst to the tomb keeper clan, everything was about to change.

"Malik, Isis!" Rishid's deep voice echoed against the rocks. "Come quickly!"

Isis and Malik exchanged a worried glance before racing down the stairs.

"Brother, what is it?" Malik shouted as he ran.

"What has happened?" Isis added.

"I am not sure!" He met them at the door to the smaller room.

Ryou was still unconscious, lying on the stone slab where the youngest Ishtar had received a bloody and painful initiation. A torch on the wall and a standing collection of ritual candles lit the otherwise dark room.

The boy was still breathing, albeit weakly. But something had changed. Instead of his normal color, a faint red light covered his entire body.

Rishid had studied it for several minutes before calling for Malik and Isis. But he couldn't find a single physical source for the light. He concluded, and perhaps rightfully so, that something had happened in the afterworld.

"What's going on?" Malik studied the strange sight, and then turned to his elder sister.

"It is what I most feared, brother." She lowered her head.

"What?"

"Ryou Bakura has spoken those words which I warned him were forbidden." She answered. "He has said the name of a god."

"You don't mean…"

"Yes. His life is in grave danger. And for breaching the great gateway, his soul will be severely punished." She lowered her head, drawing a deep silent breath.

That silence was soon broken, however, by several rounds of heavy footsteps on the stairs.

"That must be Yugi!" Malik shouted, taking his eyes off Ryou for a moment.

"And he did not arrive alone." Rishid added.

"No, it appears not." Isis nodded as well.

"Malik? Isis? Are you here?" Yugi called out from the stairs. The rustling of several other voices echoed behind him.

"We're down here!" Malik called out, rushing forward to greet Yugi. "Thank you for coming so quickly."

"Of course." Yugi answered, with his friends following quickly behind him. Jonouchi, Anzu, and Honda had all insisted on returning with Yugi to Egypt as soon as he made the slightest mention of the trip.

"Isis, what's going on?" Anzu whispered.

"Yeah, what's this I heard about Ryou trying to dig up that evil ring of his?" Honda asked as well, remembering how many times he helped throw the golden pendant away.

"So where is he, already?" Jou shouted. "Yugi, I hope you're ready to kick some ass just like the pharaoh always did."

"That won't be necessary, Jonouchi." Malik put a worried hand on the other boy's shoulder. He gestured to the unconscious boy. The red light had neither changed nor faded.

"Oh." He answered, looking over at Ryou. "So he fainted again, how's that new?"

"Jou!" Anzu elbowed him.

"What's wrong with him?" Yugi interrupted them both. "Isis? What did he do? Is this part of the ritual Malik told me about?"

"Not entirely, Yugi." She sighed. "Something has gone wrong. Very wrong. I asked Malik to invite you here to assist Ryou when he woke up. But now…"

Her voice grew very quiet. The light started to fade a little, moving down to the bottom of his feet. The faint crimson hue looked as though it was supposed to be measuring something.

"I don't know if he will be waking up at all."


	15. Terms and Conditions

"Anubis! Seize this intruder!" Osiris bellowed, standing against his podium. "What is the meaning of this? The sacred seal has broken! Who are you, and why do you dare trespass on holy ground?"

Ryou gulped again. Anubis waved his hand, and massive chains appeared around his wrists and ankles.

"He cannot escape now." Anubis bowed.

"I'm not trying to escape!" Ryou shouted, glancing at his yami. Unbeknownst to him, the power of Osiris' attack was starting to wear off, and he was slowly regaining consciousness. "I am challenging you, Osiris. To a duel! For the soul of the thief Bakura!"

"Such insolence!" Anubis shouted, gesturing to the fallen soul at his feet. "Daring to challenge a god to a mere game! You are as audacious as this monster!"

"That monster is my yami!" he shouted back.

Slowly, Bakura opened his eyes. His first thought was that of total surprise. He still existed. His second thought was one of disbelief. Ryou was standing in front of the scale of judgment, arguing with the Lord of the Dead.

"…Ryou?" he whispered, unsure if this could possibly be real. His hikari, whom he had beaten to the point of being so timid and weak, was facing off against a god.

"He is Ryou Bakura, victim and host to the thief's spirit." Thoth answered, a different tablet appearing in his hands. "A kind and gentle soul, the subject of much tragedy, the fate of his bloodline."

"For breaching this gateway, you will lose your life!" Anubis shouted, tightening the grip on his staff.

"Not before I duel!" Ryou shouted back. "He's the other half of my soul. So I deserve a chance to speak on his behalf… and… and I have terms!"

Bakura no longer knew what to think. This was real, it just had to be. And given everything he had faced in his life and death, he was willing to believe just about anything.

"He is correct, Anubis." Thoth stopped the other deity from acting rashly. "He does have this right."

Ryou breathed a quick sigh of relief.

"Speak, then, living mortal." Osiris instructed harshly. "State the terms of this challenge. Now."

Ryou only nodded.

"I… challenge you to a duel." He struggled to keep his voice from trembling as it usually did. "And these are the stakes. If I win… then… then you have to set him free. You have to set both of us free. You will allow him to return to life, in his own body, so he can finish what he started… what… what fate started…"

Ryou was clearly afraid. His legs quivered, but he stood his ground.

"Preposterous." Anubis answered. "Osiris will answer to no such demand from a mortal!"

"If such a challenge is truly decreed by fate, then I cannot simply walk away." Osiris answered, forcing the jackal-headed deity to step aside. "But I have terms as well. When I win, you will be adequately punished. You will suffer the same fate as the one you have come here to fight for."

"No… Ryou, don't…" Bakura whispered, but his hikari could not hear him. "You don't want to do that. You do not want to do that."

"Agreed." Ryou answered, and held up his deck. A duel disk magically appeared on his left arm, just as it did for Yugi as he ventured through the pharaoh's world of memory. "Then it's time… to duel…" Ryou whispered, holding the duel disk at eye-level.

"May the challenge commence!"


	16. The Duel Begins

Ryou nodded, drawing five cards from his deck to form his hand. He glanced over at his yami. This would be the most important game he ever played. If he won, he would be able to save his yami from a second death, and bring him back to life, in his own body. It would be the ultimate gift, a chance to be together with the only person he believed ever cared about him. And if he lost, he would die right along with him.

Ryou Bakura tried to shake the fear of failure from his mind.

"I can't think like that…" he whispered to himself. "I have to concentrate… to win…"

The thief Bakura could do nothing but watch, astonished that someone had the gall to challenge Osiris, lord of the dead, on his behalf. What astonished him even more was that it was his hikari.

"Draw your cards, then, mortal." Osiris ordered, as a golden dueling disk appeared on his left arm. He pulled five cards from his deck, carefully studying each one. "I will allow you to take the first turn."

"Okay…" Ryou whispered, and drew a sixth card. He glanced through his hand. There were some powerful monsters, ones he recognized from all his yami's duels. But he didn't have the means of summoning them to the field so early in the game. "I will play one card face down, and summon my Archfiend Soldier to the field in attack mode."

Ryou inserted the cards in his duel disk, and watched as mystical monsters appeared the chamber.

"A deck of demons." Anubis stared at the fiend as it arched its back and drew its sword. Its green cloak billowed in the surrounding fog. Ryou coughed a little. The air reeked of sulfur. "I should have expected as much. Lord Osiris, destroy him quickly! He shall pay for breaching the sanctity of this tribunal."

The lord of the dead nodded, and studied his hand again.

"Very few have managed to challenge me." He added, standing proudly over the other forty-two deities. "And none of them survive to tell the tale."

"Well… let this be the first, I guess… I end my turn…" Ryou whispered. "It's… it's your move, Osiris."

The thief Bakura could only watch.

"Ryou, do you even know what the hell you're doing!" he whispered under his breath. Challenging the master of the underworld to a card game was probably the most ludicrous thing he could possibly think of. No more ludicrous, however, than marching into the pharaoh's court with the former king's mummy on one's back… but that, of course, was a different story.

Osiris drew a card from the top of his deck.

"We will see how strong you are, mortal."

The god laid a trap card face down on the field.

"Now, I play Tribute to the Doomed." He declared. "A fitting first card. All I need to do is discard one card, and I can destroy this monstrosity."

Osiris pointed scornfully to the archfiend soldier, who withered and died on his command.

"And I play Soul Eater in attack mode."

A fish jumped from the floor of the chamber as though it were a vast ocean. Bearing its teeth, the monster lunged at Ryou. He could feel its teeth bearing into his heart as it passed through him. His life points fell to 6800.

"And I will play one more card face down. It is your turn." Osiris nodded, looking at the three other cards in his hand.

Ryou studied his cards as well, glancing over at his yami every few moments. That was, of course, the very reason he was having this duel.

"Right. My move…" Ryou drew another card, a giant germ. "This could come in handy later…"

He pulled a card from his hand and displayed it confidently to Osiris.

"I play Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands."

Another massive creature appeared in front of him, a nightmarish fairy constructed completely out of decapitated hands.

"And this monster has a special effect. It… It allows me to draw a ritual card from my deck when it is summoned. And I know just the card I want."

Ryou searched through his yami's deck, and pulled out one of the most frightening cards – a ritual magic card entitled Contract with the Dark Master. The card depicted the thief's entire reason for existence, to put it frankly. It was based on the dark ritual that would summon the God of Darkness from the shadows into the real world. It was a ritual that Ryou had often tried to stop, and yet, here he was, holding the cards in his hand that would make such a ritual happen right here and now.

"My creature… fillets your fish…" he pointed, as the beast attacked.

Osiris rocked forward, feeling the life points draining from his spirit. Although it was a weak attack, the god's life points only decreasing from 8000 to 7800, Ryou still felt it was a great success.

"And that's only the beginning… I… I will free my yami."

He then flipped over his face down card, revealing the first letter in the Ouija board combination his yami had so famously attempted in the Battle City Finals.

"That's… that's the Ouija board…" the thief whispered, watching Ryou duel. Still chained, he struggled to sit upright. "He really is using my deck."

Bakura silently wished his hikari had chosen a different deck. Somehow, he knew Osiris would likely have the saint dragon bearing his own name hidden somewhere in that deck. Bakura also knew his deck had faced the mighty god card before, and it had failed.

"That's the deck that got him into all that trouble." Bakura whispered to himself, this time, loud enough to catch Ryou's attention. "It got him put in the hospital, it almost got him killed by the pharaoh when that tombkeeper pulled me out of his mind."

"Yami…" Ryou glanced down at him. Even though the thief had tried to muffle his voice, Ryou still heard him clearly. "When you used this deck, you… you saved my life."

Bakura just blinked.

"I'm returning the favor… And… and more…" he smiled, but quickly returned his attention to the duel at hand. "I end my turn."

"Sentimentality will get you nowhere." Osiris exclaimed.

The deity drew a card, and held it in the air.

"I summon a Man with Wdjat!" he added, as a man appeared in front of the grotesque fairy creature. "I also flip this face down card. Allow me to explain it to you."

Ryou strained to see through the summoning fog.

"It is called the coffin seller. According to this card, each time your opponent's monster cards are sent to the graveyard, 300 points of damage is done to your life points." He added. "Now, my servant, attack this Manju of the ten thousand hands, and put it where it belongs."

The man did so. The eye of Wdjat opened, allowing beams of white light shooting from his fingertips. The monster on Ryou's side of the field exploded, taking some of Ryou's life points along with it.

And with the trap card, Coffin Seller, in play, his life points dropped even lower, to 6300.

"I end my turn." Osiris added, pleased with his most recent move.

"Good. That allows me to play the next letter of my Ouija board…" Ryou whispered timidly.

He knew this was a difficult combination to play. He had watched his yami attempt it, but only with the extra power afforded by Dark Sanctuary. He didn't have such a luxury yet, and he knew it was only a matter of time until Osiris drew a card that could wipe out one of the letters. Once one letter was destroyed, Ryou thought to himself, all of them go straight to the graveyard.

He pulled the letter E from his deck, and added it to the field. The demonic letters glistened over his head, reminding the mighty deity that he only had three more turns to go before Ryou won the duel by default.

"Now, the first thing I'm… I'm going to do is to use a… one of my Mystical Space Typhoon magic cards. It allows me to destroy one magic or trap card on the field. And I choose your Coffin Seller."

The trap vanished. Ryou wouldn't lose any more life points that way.

"I also play a monster face down, in defense mode. And I end my turn…"

Osiris studied the back of the face down card for several minutes before returning his gaze to his hand.

"Very well." The lord of the dead cleared his throat. Anubis looked on from his right side with much anticipation. The king of thieves looked on from his left, with just as much anticipation.

"I summon the Hand of Nephthys." Osiris commanded, and a proud woman rose from beneath the chamber floor. Clad completely in red and gold, she sprouted the fiery wings of a phoenix. They were, however, quite faint, compared to the rest of her armor. "But she will not remain on my side of the field for long. I sacrifice her, along with my other creature, to bring out something far more powerful!"

The woman fell, revealing a giant gold creature. Its wings stretched across half of the tribunal seats, and its claws dug at least two feet into the chamber floor.

"Behold, the Sacred Phoenix of Nephthys!"

Ryou's knees quaked with fear. The beast had 2400 attack points, far more than his face-down monster.

"And with that I end my turn." Osiris added.

Ryou blinked. He was surprised that the deity did not attack that turn.

"What are you waiting for, my lord?" the jackal-headed Anubis called out from the sidelines of the duel.

"Why didn't he attack?" the thief wondered aloud as well.

"He must be afraid of my face down monster…" Ryou whispered to himself. "… That could be good, or it could be bad…"

The former host of the millennium ring shuffled through his deck, pulling out the next letter of the Ouija board combination. The A was added to the array of letters that glistened behind his head.

Ryou drew another card, and studied it. It was the H, the final card in the combination, something he couldn't play just yet. He had no other monsters he could summon, so he was forced to end his turn.

"Your move, Osiris."

He took a deep breath. There were only two more turns before the Ouija board would be complete. If he could finish the word, his yami would be free to return to life, in his own body. They would be together.

Ryou glanced over at his yami, who stared back. His yami's face covered several emotions all at once. Shock and disbelief, anticipation, even what looked like fright. "Could he honestly be concerned about what could happen to me… if… if I lose?" Ryou whispered under his breath. "… Yami?"

The thief shook his head, snapping out of the duel-induced trance.

"Don't take your eyes off him for a second!" he shouted back. He was tired of sitting idly by while someone else dueled for his life. The least he could do was scream a little advice. "Not until he's dead! Gods are all alike – they'll trick you and kill you! "

"Silence, thief!" Anubis bellowed, striking his staff against the stone floor.

Ryou only nodded.

"Your move… I'm… I'm waiting…"

Osiris drew a card from his deck, and placed it face down on the field.

"I play this monster in defense mode." He added. Osiris watched his opponent carefully. It seemed as though Ryou wanted him to attack. As long as that intention was clear, Osiris would keep his opponent waiting.

The right card was close at hand. It was only a matter of time until he drew it into his hand. Fate would see to that.

"And now I end my turn."

Again, Ryou only blinked.

"That's fine… fine with me." He nervously shouted. Searching through his deck, he drew the T, the second to last letter in the combination. "You have… You have one more turn before the Ouija board is complete. And as soon as it is, I will win this duel."

He must be biding his time, Ryou thought to himself. But for what?

The deity didn't answer.

"Then my move."

Ryou picked up the next card from the top of his deck. It was the Dark Necrofear. Ryou gazed at the card for what felt like an eternity. This was his yami's most precious card. He knew it wasn't the strongest card in the deck. That was likely his Invader of Darkness, with 2900 attack points. This card only had 2200 attack points. But its strength was in its effect. It could steal more powerful monsters, much like Ryou's favorite card, the Change of Heart.

"Wow… he… he isn't that different from me, I guess…" Ryou looked down at the card in his hand. The blue-skinned fiend was clutching the remains of a decapitated baby, the only thing she had left in the world. "We do the same things… We just call them by a different name…"

"Make your move, mortal!" Osiris called out, standing proudly behind his podium. "If I have but one more turn, I would like to go ahead and draw the card necessary to destroy your Ouija board."

Ryou quickly looked through his hand. With so few fiend cards in his graveyard, there was nothing else he could do.

"I… I end my turn." Ryou whispered. "This one… will be your last."


	17. Ouija Board

Osiris watched his opponent carefully as he drew his next card. The deity knew the game would end, with the mortal boy as the victor, unless he drew a card that could stop the dreaded Ouija board.

Bakura hoped that Osiris could not draw such a card. But he also knew, and rightfully so, that in the realm of the gods, mercy was not often given to the unworthy.

"This will do nicely. Because I believe I know exactly where your last letter card is."

"No you don't!" Bakura shouted from his chains. "Ryou, don't listen to him! He's just trying to scare you!"

Osiris ignored the outburst, and held up the card he just drew. "My turn is just beginning, and if you think it shall be my last, then mortal, you are mistaken!"

Ryou gulped. His knees clattered against each other as he fought to keep his mind clear of fear.

"First, I play my spirit reaper in attack mode."

A ghastly spirit moved through Osiris, to float above the chamber floor. The purple cloaked zombie swung a double bladed scythe, slicing through the surrounding fog. Its main purpose was that of a ferryman – taking the dead across the Nile. Anubis knew that this was clearly a message from Osiris to his opponent.

"But that is not all. Next, I shall flip my hidden monster into attack mode as well."

It too, was a zombie; a poison mummy, with 1000 attack points.

"And my mummy has a special effect. When it is flip summoned, it deals 500 points of direct damage to you."

Ryou cringed, as he felt five hundred more life points drain from his spirit. It was more painful than the first attack. His life points dropped to 5800, 2000 shy of Osiris, Lord of the Dead.

"But I am not yet finished. Next, I will play Pot of Greed, which allows me to draw two more cards."

He picked up two cards from his deck, and studied them intensely.

"Yes, this card will do nicely."

Ryou gulped again, echoed by his yami. He could see the strategy in Osiris' eyes. Something powerful was about to take the field.

"I have drawn Monster Reborn, a card that will allow me to bring back a creature from the graveyard." Osiris announced. "And in the afterlife, I am not limited to merely my graveyard. I can also resurrect from yours. And that is exactly what I will do."

He stretched out his hand, and Ryou's first monster, his Archfiend Soldier, came back to the field on Osiris' control.

Anubis, meanwhile, contemplated the irony of such a move. All creatures, at the point of death, join with Osiris.

"And with your own monster, I will attack your face down card!"

Ryou nodded, as the card flipped over, revealing a gigantic single celled organism floating in the chamber. The fiend unsheathed his sword, and sliced through the opposing monster.

"This is my giant germ." He answered. "You might have destroyed it. But not without a price. The… the sickness… it affects you. And you lose 500 life points.

"That's it, host!" Bakura cheered. "Show him what you're made of!"

"And that is not all it does." Ryou added, as Osiris' life points dropped to 7200 from the attacks. "Two more giant germs can appear on the field in face up attack mode to protect my life points…"

Osiris watched as two more germs sprouted from the remains of the killed one.

"If I… I know anything well… It's being sick. Where you have one germ, you're bound to have more…"

This time, it was Bakura who contemplated the irony of the move.

"That will only buy you time." Osiris added. "But it will not bring you victory!"

Upon his command, his poison mummy attacked one of the germs. With their attack strengths both at 1000, both creatures died. Osiris took 500 more points of damage to his life. His phoenix attacked the other, burning a large hole through Ryou's remaining life points.

The deity may have been reduced to 6200 life points, but that was miniscule compared to Ryou Bakura, who stood there with just over half of his life points remaining.

"And now, my spirit reaper attacks your life points directly." Osiris announced, as the zombie lunged at Ryou. The sickle sliced through his chest, taking his life points down to 4100. Ryou coughed, struggling to breathe through the attack.

"Come on, Ryou! You're still alive! Stand back up! As soon as he ends his turn, you win! I win! We get out of here!" Bakura shouted again.

"Quiet, thief." Anubis shouted, taking the chains in his hand. "Osiris is not yet finished!"

"He will be!"

"Nonsense." Anubis shook the chains, yanking the thief's shoulders around. Bakura grunted as he felt them momentarily separate from his spiritual body.

"Exactly. For my spirit reaper has a special ability, and that is why I waited until this moment to attack with him." The deity spoke calmly. "This card cannot be destroyed as a result of battle, but when it attacks your life points directly, it allows me to randomly select one card from your hand, and discard it to the graveyard."

Ryou froze.

"I can feel it, and the frightened gaze in your eyes tells me my feelings do not betray me. The card you need is sitting in your hand. All I need to do is find it."

Ryou gulped. His face betrayed the truth of Osiris' declaration. The letter H, the final card in the Ouija board combination, was in his hand.

Osiris strode forward, climbing from his podium. He held his hand over Ryou's set of cards. The god's hand hovered over several cards that Ryou prayed he wouldn't take, especially the final letter of the combination.

Osiris paused, watching Ryou's eyes display the card he wanted.

He reached into the hand, and pulled out the letter H.

"I think your card combination is finished." Osiris added confidently. The rest of the Ouija board vanished. Bakura fell to the ground in despair. The duel would continue. And for Ryou, it would be an even more difficult fight.

"I believe I can end my turn now." Osiris added with a slight grin. "It's your move."

Ryou just stood there, in shock that his yami's most famous combination had failed him.

"Let's see what you have left."


	18. What you take with you

The Ishtar family paced across their stone floor, while their frightened guests did the same. The night was waning like the moon outside, and the candles were starting to snuff themselves out. All through the night, Ryou Bakura remained unconscious on that cold stone slab. But his condition had changed greatly over the last couple of hours.

"I don't get it." Jonouchi added, looking back at Isis again. "Are you trying to tell us he's fighting one of the gods?"

"That is the only reason I can believe this red tint should cover his body."

She looked back at the lifeless boy. Early in the night, it was just his feet that were covered with red light. Now, the light had stretched to cover his fingertips as well as his waist.

"You mean, like in Duel Monsters?" Yugi asked, worriedly. "With life points?"

"That might be the case." Malik answered. "The ancients dueled with spirit beasts, much like we do today. But you already know that, Yugi."

"Of course. We all saw it inside the pharaoh's memory. They called it a Diaha."

"The ancient Egyptian word for duel." Rishid commented, carrying a new torch to replace the one that had since burned out. "And if such duels were conducted by the great pharaoh, incarnate of Horus, it is likely that the other gods fought in similar battles."

"Which means your friend Ryou is in grave danger." Isis added. "Should his entire body become red, it will mean that he has lost this challenge."

"But how'd he get into a challenge in the first place?" Honda asked. "I know Ryou. He's too shy to even speak up in class if there's a math problem on the board. He wouldn't confront a God."

"Given the fact that this is occurring, we know he has already spoken the name of a God. So he is visible in their realm." Isis added.

"Yeah, maybe the gods challenged him!"

"Okay, now that, I can believe." Honda nodded.

"Still, I don't like it, you guys." Anzu interrupted. "Regardless of how he ended up in this challenge, he's fighting for his life somewhere, and we can't do anything about it. What kind of friends are we?"

"The kind who will sit here, and greet him when he comes to." Yugi answered with a smile. "It's all we can do, right Isis?"

"For now, yes."

"Then we'll just have to do that." Yugi smiled, resolving to keep a vigil over the white-haired boy.

"What kind of challenge do you think he's fighting, Isis?" Anzu asked gently, looking at Ryou with a gaze of genuine concern.

"From what we know, it could be anything." Isis answered.

"But the scrolls do say that anything you take into the afterlife with you remains yours." Malik answered. "Just as the pharaoh would have his tomb filled with the provisions we need, Ryou could have taken what he would need into the judgment hall of Osiris."

Jonouchi cocked an eyebrow, and started feeling down Ryou's pockets.

"What are you doing!" Anzu shrieked.

"Yup. Just as I figured. He's got stuff in his pockets."

"Really, Jou. That's sort of mean to go through someone's pockets while they're out cold." Honda added. He crossed his arms in front of his chest, and just shook his head.

He thought silently about it for another couple of moments.

"So, what's in them?"

He reached into one pocket, and pulled out a small green stone, attached to a thin chain.

"It looks like a necklace." He answered curiously.

"Let me see that!" Isis immediately snatched the necklace from Jonouchi's hands. "Do you know what this is?"

The four friends shook their heads.

"It is a heart scarab." Isis smiled. "It is a necklace often found on the body of mummified pharaohs, to aid them in the judgment. It is said that he who wears one of these will not have their hearts devoured by Ammut. And that Osiris will look upon them favorably."

"So he's not going to die!" Anzu sighed with relief. "Isis, that's the best news I've heard all night… Thank goodness."

"But if he's protected, why is his body half red?" Jonouchi butted in once more.

"Please, calm down." Isis put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "When I spoke with him, he made no mention of the scarab, but he must have known something like this could happen. Clearly, he is prepared…"

"And his life is not in critical danger yet." Rishid added. "It is possible that the gods do not know of this charm's existence either. It is only upon facing Ammut that such an amulet gains its full power."

"Okay…" Jonouchi quieted down, and Yugi breathed a sigh of relief.

"What else is in there?" Honda whispered to Jonouchi, who quickly put his hand in Ryou's other pocket.

"Oh man." He answered, and a worried look came over his face. Generally, Jonouchi wasn't the brightest of the group, but even he couldn't side-step around this deduction.

"What is it?" everyone asked.

He pulled out a deck of Duel Monster cards.

"I know what he's doing in there."

They all looked at the cards.

"You mean, he's dueling his yami? Like I did mine?" Yugi asked with a sudden gasp. Ryou was not the type who often dueled. In fact, it was his yami that was always seen dueling, not him.

"He did mention a need to determine if he and the spirit of the millennium ring were ready to separate." Malik answered.

"No. Yugi, look." Jonouchi flipped through the deck. "These cards' have got to belong to the spirit. They're the same deck you faced in Battle City. I'd remember that crazy blue chick with the baby, and that creepy Ouija board anywhere."

"So if that's the only deck he has…" Yugi gasped.

Isis lowered her head. She knew exactly what he would say.

"Then he's not dueling his former yami. He's dueling… a god!"

"Osiris." Malik whispered, holding his hand over his heart. "The lord of the dead. There is no other alternative. Osiris is the only deity in the underworld capable of making or accepting such a challenge."

"A god! And if he looses?" Anzu gasped.

"He'd die." Isis answered, and they all turned back to the lifeless boy on the slab.

Ryou Bakura was fighting the most important duel of his life, and all they could do was watch the red light appear on his fragile body.


	19. Dark Necrofear

'He'd die…'

Such a thought had crossed Bakura's mind too. The thief's body chained in place, he could only watch the duel unfold, knowing that should his former host lose, both of them would be ripped apart by Ammut's dagger-like incisors.

"It's my move now." Ryou announced, drawing another card from his deck. "Destroying those germs gave me just enough fiends in my graveyard, Osiris."

The thief blinked. He knew exactly which card Ryou was going to play.

"I summon my Dark Necrofear to the field in defense mode."

Ryou slapped the card neatly onto an open space on his duel disk, and the demonic woman appeared in the sulfuric haze. Her tiny yellow eyes stared at Osiris with contempt, as though she remembered him from somewhere. She clutched her broken baby, pulling it closer to her metallic chest.

"She will protect my life points." Ryou added. "I also summon another archfiend soldier to the field, and I attack the archfiend soldier you stole from my graveyard!"

"An eye for an eye." Osiris replied, watching as the two archfiends sliced each other in half at the same time. Because they were equal in all respects, they both died. No more life points were lost on either side.

"And now, I end my turn…" Ryou whispered. "Necrofear, you can protect me for now… I'm going to need your effects soon enough…"

Osiris drew another card, and held it up.

"I activate another pot of greed, allowing me once again to draw two more cards." The deity spoke calmly, adding those to the three already in his hand. "And then I play the magic card, Celestial Transformation."

Ryou glanced at Osiris quizzically; he'd never heard of that card before. The thief also looked on with confusion.

"You do not know what it is, do you?" Osiris looked down on the mortal boy. He rested his hands on the podium. "With a deck comprised solely of demons, I would assume not. This card allows me to special summon one angel from my hand. And I already know who to select."

He held up a card, and a gigantic angel descended into the chamber. Radiant purple armor covered his muscular form, and the creature's wingspan alone engulfed the entire tribunal area. The angel pointed a large scepter at Ryou Bakura, small waves of white static rolling over the wand.

"I summon Voltranis the Adjuciator to the field."

Ryou trembled at the presence of such a force. The angel had an attack strength of 2800, the exact amount of defense strength of his Dark Necrofear. Thankfully, she could withstand such an attack.

"And I end my turn without attacking." Osiris added, and lowered his cards.

Ryou nodded, and drew his next card.

"This could come in handy." Ryou whispered, laying a magic jammer face down on the field.

"Don't let him get to you, hikari!" Bakura shouted from the sidelines. "Any idiot can see what strategy he's aiming for! He's obviously got a god card in there!"

Ryou froze as he heard his yami shout. His breath stalled, deep in his throat, and he coughed to try and free it.

His yami's outburst made sense. This was Osiris, lord of the dead. The enormous red dragon in the pharaoh's Battle City deck was also called Osiris. Surely the deity would have his own namesake, if not his own ka, present in his deck. The better question, however, was: Did Bakura have anything in his Battle City deck that could stop a god?

Ryou glanced at the thief, and nodded.

"Gods, don't let him psych you out!" Bakura pleaded. These were some of the first words of confidence he dared utter after the Ouija board combination had been destroyed on its last turn.

"I won't…" Ryou answered.

He looked through his hand. He had a secret weapon waiting, but he couldn't use it just yet. But when the time was right…

"I end my turn…"

"You will regret not attacking with your infernal puppeteer." Osiris chanted calmly.

Ryou blinked.

"…wh..what?"

Osiris held up the card that he had just drawn from his deck. It was just as the thief Bakura feared. The card in his hand was the saint dragon bearing his name. The card itself resonated with such power, that both yami and hikari feared its arrival onto the playing field.

"Yes…" Osiris smiled. "This duel ends now."


	20. Saint Dragon Osiris

Osiris held his god card proudly, and placed it gently on his golden duel disk.

"A ten star monster, that requires the sacrifice of three other creatures just to breathe life into it. And I happen to have three on the field right now."

Bakura gulped, and managed to cover his eyes. He instantly thought of Battle City, how terrified he was when the pharaoh managed to summon that same God. His cards had failed him. His strategies had failed him. And it was at that moment that the traitorous tomb keeper had suggested he throw Ryou in front of the dragon's attack.

He did so, of course, but before the final blow could be struck, Bakura had changed his mind.

"He couldn't take that attack then." Bakura whispered under his breath, too quiet for Ryou to notice. "He can't take it now."

The three monsters on Osiris' side of the field, the phoenix, spirit reaper, and angel, vanished into a fine mist. And from that haze, the mighty saint dragon Osiris rose.

"It'll kill him." He whispered. Bakura could hardly believe his own words. He tried to silence his thoughts, but they just kept coming. "It'll kill him, and then they'll kill me. And it's all my fault. He's about to… to die…"

Ryou felt his knees buckle at the sight of the dragon.

His mind also raced back to Battle City. The last time he faced the dragon's double mouth, he was too groggy to appreciate how fearful it actually was. If it weren't for his yami taking control of the body, he might have lost much more than the duel that day. He just as easily could have lost his life.

"That… that was then… This is now." Ryou tried to talk himself out of his fears. "This time… I have a reason to fight… and… and to win. I… I can handle anything that Osiris will throw at me… As long as… as long as my yami is by my side…"

He glanced back at the thief, who still had his head buried in his palms.

"I'll stop Osiris… I have to." He shouted aloud. "I'm taking you out of here, yami! Even if it's the last thing I do!"

"It will be." Osiris interrupted, immediately attacking with his dragon.

Ryou didn't even have time to move before the lightning blast struck the Dark Necrofear. The dragon's power was directly related to the number of cards in Osiris' hand. The deity held three cards, so its attack strength was 3000.

The Dark Necrofear could do nothing to stop the attack. She fell to the ground, burnt to her very core. Blue skin cracked and crumbled. Even her precious baby was reduced to a mere pile of ash.

"I activate her special ability!" Ryou shouted. "I'm allowed to take one of your monsters and… and bring it to my side of the…"

"It doesn't work that way." Osiris smiled. "Monster effects do not work on divine monsters. And magic effects only work for one turn. Your fiend is in the graveyard, powerless."

Ryou trembled. Osiris was right. And before his eyes, the Necrofear collapsed, devoid of her last vestige of power.

"… oh god…" he gasped, quickly trying to think of another strategy. He sorted through his hand at least twice before looking back up at his opponent.

"And next time, that lightning blast will be aimed at your life points!" Osiris added. "I end my turn."

"Oh god…" he gulped again. He glanced to the side. His yami didn't even move.

Timidly, he drew another card.

But as he saw the familiar picture on the magic card, he slowly started to gain some confidence back.

"… No. It won't." Ryou shouted, pulling both himself and his yami out of their momentary delirium. "This time, it will be aimed… aimed at… at your life points."

"I beg your pardon?"

"I activate Snatch Steal." He held up the magic card, and slid it into an opening in his duel disk. "And since it's… it's a continuous magic card, it works, but only for one turn. And one turn is all I need!"

Bakura jumped up, the chains pulling him quickly back down. Anubis kept a tight hold on them.

"Give that asshole a taste of his own medicine!" he screamed.

"Silence, wretched thief!" Anubis shouted back, pulling him down again. White lightning appeared around the edges of his staff. "Before you force me to silence you."

"I'm stealing your god…" Ryou announced slowly. With the card played, the saint dragon Osiris slithered around Ryou, and settled to face Osiris.

"Now… now what do I remember about… about this god card?" Ryou even let a smile escape his lips. "Its power is based on how many cards are in my hand. And there are five cards in my hand."

Osiris froze.

"And I attack your life points directly… With all 5,000 of your dragon's attack points!"

The thief grinned, still struggling against Anubis' chains. He could hardly believe how skillful a duelist his hikari really was. One turn ago, he was about to die, and now, he was attacking the god with a god! With himself! The irony was enough to make him fall over in laughter.

The dragon powered up a mystical lighting blast, and struck Osiris square in the chest. The deity was blown back into another podium behind him. As the smoke cleared, the damage could be felt as well as seen. The podium had broken with such an impact, and Osiris was weakly attempting to stand back up.

His life points, once so strong, were now lower than Ryou's. He only had 2200 remaining.

"And that's not all." Ryou added as the smoke started to clear. "Now, I play a ritual magic card!"

Bakura quickly sat up. He only knew of one ritual card in his entire deck. And unless Ryou had completely redone his deck, he knew exactly what the boy was about to do. The main surprise was, of course, that Ryou would even perform such a ritual.

"I play Contract with the Dark Master." He announced. "And in order to complete this ritual, I must sacrifice any number of monsters that equals eight or more levels. And since your god is a level ten, and it is currently in my control, I choose to sacrifice it!"

Bakura voiced a loud gasp, which was quickly silenced by Anubis. The jackal-headed deity, unable to stand the thief's insolence any longer, had taken it upon himself to strike him upside the head.

His cheek slammed into the floor with such force that it broke apart the stones. Regardless, he still twisted his head around to see the duel.

"And now… The dark master Zorc can enter the game!" Ryou shouted, much more assuredly than anyone would have expected.

Osiris froze as he saw the dark god step out of the shadows. The air steamed with sulfur, and tasted like ash. Even the chamber floor, as holy as it was, withered away at the touch of Zorc's feet.

"L…Lord of the Dead… m..meet Lord of the Darkness…" Ryou shouted timidly. The creature roared, lifting its ivory horns into the air. Red eyes pierced Osiris' very being, draining him of his strength and purpose. "And… and since I already attacked this turn… It's your move…"

Bakura was nothing short of awestruck at his hikari's last move.

Not only did he just summon a monster that he literally sacrificed his life in order to stop. But he also sacrificed a god to unleash another god. He used cards, which in their very nature condemn one's soul into the darkness. Metaphorically speaking, to make a contract with the dark master in this game was no different than putting the seven items back in the millennium stone and reciting the lost name of the pharaoh. But Ryou had already done that too.

"That was how he got here in the first place." Bakura whispered, as Anubis thrust his boot into Bakura's back. He slammed into the floor again. "He gave in to the darkness… just to see me…"

His hand pressed against his chest, Bakura clutched the green stoned necklace his hikari had gave him. Suddenly, it meant more than all the power of the millennium ring.

"Hear that, asshole!" Bakura shouted, completely ignoring Anubis' heavy heel. "How does it feel to be beat by the God of Darkness?"

"Silence." Osiris roared. He glanced scornfully at the thief, and then turned back to Ryou. "I knew you would make that move. It was only a matter of time."

Ryou blinked.

"Summoning an Egyptian god was only part one of my strategy. I should be thanking you for setting up the field for the next round!"

"The… the next round?" Ryou asked weakly. Osiris merely nodded.

"Where you, and the demon you fight for, shall both be destroyed!"


	21. Dark Master Zorc

With his god card destroyed, Ryou thought he would have finally gained the upper hand in the duel. Osiris, however, simply smiled at such a ridiculous proposition.

"You have just sealed your own fate by playing that card." Osiris added. "Mark my words. It will allow me to become even more powerful later."

"Don't listen to him, Ryou! He's a filthy liar!" Bakura shouted again, before a staff struck him in the back of the head. "No one can beat Zorc! Not a person! Not a god!"

Ryou only nodded as his heart throbbed in his chest. He was terrified, not only from the duel, but also from the possibility that Osiris was right.

"I lay one more card face down." Osiris announced. "And I also play the magic card, Dian Keto, the Cure Master. And with her power, I gain a thousand life points."

A woman in turquoise appeared beside Osiris, carrying a round pitcher. She bent to one knee, and offered him the refreshing drink. The Lord of the Dead nodded, and held out his hands. She poured the elixir of life into his palms, and he raised them to his lips. As he tasted the sweet liquid, he could feel his energy being restored.

His life points rose to 3200, while Ryou's remained steady at 4100.

"He's still weaker than you, Ryou!" Bakura shouted again. Ryou nodded at his yami's comment, but dared not take his eyes from Osiris for even an instant.

"I end my turn." Osiris stated calmly.

Ryou drew another card, and glanced down at his hand. There was nothing he could use this turn. The card he drew was his Summoned Skull, a level six monster. It required at least one sacrifice before it could be played.

He studied the field. Osiris had no monsters on the field, but he did have two trap cards, and a reckless attack could destroy his god, and wipe out most of his remaining life points. Ryou knew he had to be cautious.

"It's still your move." Osiris reminded him. Ryou trembled, and nodded.

"There's nothing I can do this turn…" he whispered back. "It's your move."

"If that is how it will be. It is time to begin phase two of my strategy. Something I have been planning since the very beginning!"

Ryou gulped, hoping that the thief was right – that this was really just a bluff. Deep down, though, he knew it probably wasn't.

"I flip my face down card, to reveal the pyramid of light!" Osiris shouted. A great monument of light appeared behind him, giving the god the golden radiance of Ra himself. "And this allows me to sacrifice 1000 life points, in order to summon two of my most powerful monsters! I summon my Andro Sphinx in attack mode and my Sphinx Teleia in defense mode."

The first great beast stood proudly over the chamber. His lion-like face let out a mighty roar, shaking the foundations of the temple. Even the former thief king gulped at his strength. As powerful as one of Seto Kaiba's blue eyes white dragons, the sphinx boasted 3000 attack points.

A massive female sphinx, with flowing red hair, joined her mate. The level ten monster sat in a defensive stance, 3000 defense points protecting both her and the god who summoned her.

Both monsters alone were enough to destroy the god on Ryou's side of the field. Their brute power made even the guardian of the shadow realm shake.

Ryou froze. This was it.

He had fought so hard, and now, the Andro Sphinx would tear Zorc apart, and the Sphinx of Teleia would tear her claws through his own heart. He recalled his life points. He could take two hits, and that was counting no other surprises. But that was about all he had left.

He glanced down to his yami, with an apologetic gaze. Bakura pretended not to notice it.

"Let him have it, Ryou!" he chanted, refusing to believe that his hikari was about to be defeated. Anubis pulled his body off the ground, slamming it into the stone again. But Bakura acted as though nothing had even happened. "Hold nothing back! Let Zorc at them! Show them what the lord of darkness can do!"

Ryou nodded weakly, even though he would probably never get the chance to activate Dark Master Zorc's special abilities.

Osiris, however, then did the unexpected.

"I end my turn." He smiled, and held his hands at his side. Even though he only had 2200 life points, and a wide-open shot, he chose not to attack!

Ryou gasped. There had to be a reason, he thought to himself. Is he biding his time? Is he merely defending against what could be a stronger monster in my hand? Does he want me to attack them?

Dark Master Zorc only possessed attack strength of 2700. It was not high enough to defeat either of the Sphinxes, the way they were summoned. However, just like Yami Bakura always had another way of fighting, so did the god he followed.

"I activate Zorc's special ability!" Ryou shouted, holding up a die.

"I knew you would." Osiris shouted back. "Let's see you use it to stop me."

"I will." Ryou answered, and held up the die. "If I roll a one or a two, both of your sphinxes are destroyed! If I roll a three, a four, or a five, I choose one of your monsters to be destroyed. If I roll a six, I destroy myself."

Osiris just watched calmly, as if Ryou had made an empty threat.

"Show him what kind of damage Zorc is capable of, Ryou!" Bakura shouted from the side. "I know! You know! Send his entire field to the graveyard, and then attack! You'll kill him in one turn!"

As he cheered, Bakura leapt to his feet. The chains, however, along with Anubis' spear, quickly brought him back to his knees. Truth be told, though, he hadn't felt this alive in a long time, and he was as far from alive as someone could get.

"You can do it, Ryou! You can do it!"

The die stopped rolling.

"It's a one! All of your powerful monsters are destroyed!" Ryou shouted with a timid smile. "And that means I can attack your life points directly, Osiris! And I win! My yami… he's free to go! And you have to honor the… the terms of the challenge!"

He pointed Zorc in the direction of the deity, and the dark god couldn't be more pleased.

"I think you are mistaken." Osiris replied with a smile. Ryou gasped. "This isn't the end of the game. And you have no idea what you just unleashed!"


	22. Theinen, The Great Sphinx

Osiris smiled. Although two of his most powerful monsters had been destroyed, the way in which they had been destroyed just paved the way for something greater to appear on the field.

Ryou only gulped.

"W…what is it?" he finally managed to add. His body shivered with a new-found terror.

"When my two sphinxes are destroyed at the exact same time, I am allowed to sacrifice 500 of my own life points in order to summon Theinen, The Great Sphinx to the field! And this – This is the monster that will be your undoing!"

Osiris searched his deck, and set a new monster card on his duel disk.

A gigantic winged beast descended into the chamber. Its body parts were borrowed from several creatures, both natural and unnatural, making it appear even more impressive. As it landed, the ground shook with its immense power.

Bakura, who was just managing to stand again, was knocked back onto his knees. Even the jackal-headed deity, Anubis, lost his divine balance, and fell on top of the captured thief.

"Oh…oh my god…" Ryou gulped again.

This was not just an ordinary duel monster. This creature possessed just as much strength as an Egyptian god card. Perhaps it was a god, just not one that the pharaoh knew to summon.

The creature was far more powerful than anything Ryou had ever seen before. Its attack strength reached 3500; its defense strength was 3000. And Zorc was just a dark shadow in comparison.

"It's still your turn, though." Osiris finally added, after the immense power of Theinen the Great Sphinx had been clearly displayed.

"Oh…" Ryou just whispered back, quickly switching Zorc into defense mode. There was nothing else he could do.

Bakura couldn't bear to watch.

"I… I end my turn…" Ryou whispered, defeated.

Osiris just smiled, and drew his next card. While his life points may have fallen to under 2000, he was still confident that in the end, he would win the challenge. No one had ever defeated the Lord of the Dead. And no one ever would.

"I play one card face down." Osiris announced, laying his latest card on the field. "And now, I shall obliterate the darkness that is Zorc!"

The thief Bakura buried his eyes as the lord of the dead pointed towards what had eventually become his ka. The greatest shadow power in the world was no match for this new creature.

"My great sphinx, I beseech thee - Crush Dark Master Zorc." Osiris shouted, and the monster obeyed. His thick claws sliced through the demon, spilling a shadowy tar over the floor of the chamber. The air smelt of rotting corpses, making even Ryou's spirit cringe. Had he a mortal body at the moment, he surely would have vomited.

"Your god is dead. And you are defenseless." Osiris stated calmly. "Those who rely on the power of darkness eventually succumb to the light."

Ryou stared at the floor.

"I end my turn."

"I… I came so far…" Ryou Bakura whispered to himself. He glanced over at his yami. The thief, so vitriolic in the face of a god, was crying. At first, Ryou didn't believe it. But out of the corner of his eye, he was certain he saw tears slide down the jagged scar. "Yami, please… don't… don't…"

He reached out his hand gently towards the fallen spirit of the thief. Bakura looked up momentarily. Ryou realized he was right. Bakura was crying. Anubis watched, smiling at the pitiful state the king of thieves had been reduced to.

He wiped his eyes.

"Please… don't give up yet… I… I can still win…"

"How? Zorc is dead. I know my deck, host! There is nothing in my deck that stop that God! Nothing!" he shouted back, slamming his fists into the cold stone. "Nothing! And now we're both going to be devoured by that crocodile-headed freak of nature!"

"… Yami… please… This… this isn't just your deck…" Ryou whispered back. Osiris just watched them, keeping his silence. "It's also my deck. I… I made a few changes to it… Not many… But I did make a few."

"Like what!" Bakura refused to look up.

"I added one card." He whispered. "One card I…I couldn't duel without…"

"Like one card can make a difference." He snarled. "What'd you add, anyway?"

"My… my favorite card." Ryou smiled weakly, wishing he could just walk over to his yami, and dry his tears. He came here to save him, not to hurt him. And after all the pain both of them had been through, the last thing he wanted to do was cause his yami any more pain.

Bakura gasped, instantly understanding.

He knew exactly what card Ryou added to the deck. It was a card that Bakura himself once used during Duelist Kingdom, when he had a brief opportunity to steal the millennium puzzle. Through the power of his ring, he sealed everyone into cards. Ryou was sealed as well. And the boy had turned against him, just to save the lives of his friends. Given that battle, and others like it, he could hardly even imagine why Ryou was here now, fighting for _his_ life.

But regardless, Bakura knew what card Ryou was referring to. There was only one that so aptly caught Ryou's affection. It was the Change of Heart magic card.

And Bakura finally understood something else too.

"That card was meant for me, wasn't it, host." He finally looked up again.

"… Yes." Ryou answered weakly. "For… for both of us, kind of."

He trembled a little, trying his best to keep the courage he had learned from his yami.

"And I think it worked…"

Bakura didn't know how to respond.

"Now… if only I could draw it."

Ryou put his hand on his deck. He wished upon every last remnant of strength within him to draw that card.

"I… I have maybe… maybe two turns, maybe one left… I… I have to draw it now…"

"You have to draw what now?" Osiris finally asked.

"The one card that… that can stop you."


	23. Change of Heart

The chamber was silent as Ryou Bakura pulled a card from his deck. At first, he didn't even dare to look at it. But as he slowly opened his eyes, his trembling lip started to calm down.

In his hand, looking up at him, was a familiar face - that of a simple girl in a long white gown, sprouting two wings. One was an angel's wing, white feathers stretching beyond the borders of the card. The other was a demon's wing, leathery flap wrapping around itself. Half of her face was in light, the other in shadow.

It was Ryou's favorite card, the card he most desperately needed.

Bakura looked up. He could see the light in Ryou's face, and knew there was still a chance.

"He drew it…" Bakura mouthed softly. Anubis kept a close eye, ready to strike if necessary.

"I… I drew it…" Ryou echoed, not even hearing his yami. "Just like… just like the pharaoh… in his duel with Yugi…"

He held the card in his hand.

"Isis said… that the pharaoh had such a strong will, that he actually influenced where the cards were in the deck…" Ryou looked back up at Osiris. "Maybe… maybe my will to… to… to stay connected with my yami… is… is strong enough to… to win this duel!"

"It's your move." Osiris interrupted the one-sided conversation.

"I know!" Ryou answered. He looked down at his yami.

"Give him all you've got, Ryou." Bakura even cocked a small smile. "You can do it."

Ryou nodded, and held up his card.

"I play Change of Heart!" he shouted triumphantly, the heart of the cards shouting from within his deck. "And with it, I gain control of one monster for one turn. And I'm taking your sphinx!"

Osiris said nothing.

The powerful beast turned from its original master, and strode to the other side of the field. Bowing to its new owner, at least for this turn, it turned to face the deity.

"And now, I believe you only have 1700 life points. Your sphinx has 3500 attack points." Ryou reiterated plainly. "I… I attack your life points directly!"

Bakura smirked as the monster readied itself for an attack. For the first time since his village was massacred, fate was on his side. Raising its lion-like claws in the air, it let out a deep roar. Theinen the Great Sphinx charged towards Osiris, bearing its fangs, and leaping towards the tribunal.

"I wouldn't be so certain of your victory, mortal." Osiris spoke calmly, ignoring the monster rushing so recklessly towards him.

Ryou froze in his tracks. In the euphoria of drawing his favorite card just as he needed it most, he had forgotten to consider the one face down card on his opponent's side of the field.

"I activate my trap." Osiris smiled. "Magic Cylinder."

"… oh no…" Ryou could barely reply, before the creature's attack was thrust back at him, with the exact same amount of force. 3500 attack points, nearly all of his life points, suddenly vanished, leaving a weak, unsteady mortal boy fighting to stand erect. Such a blast would have sent him flying into the Hall of Ma'at, were it not for the chains still wrapped tightly around his ankles.

"… Ryou…" Bakura gasped, lunging forward as if to catch him. The chains, however, caught him first. Anubis' staff came quickly after, thrust into his back. The thief fell to his chest, dust scattering around him. But he kept his eyes fixed on his hikari.

Ryou Bakura was still alive, by 600 life points. His remaining strength, however, was quickly waning. He had taken the full force of a powerful attack, more than he would have received from the saint dragon, Osiris. It was the same sort of attack that Bakura had once taken for him, just to keep him alive.

"Ryou, are you all right?" Bakura shouted, coughing slightly. He still struggled under the hand of Anubis. "God, stand back up! Stand back up!"

"I… I think so…" he attempted to stand straight. His eyes blurred, as his feet swayed on the platform. His spirit was on the verge of falling victim to the stress of the duel. "I play one monster… in… in defense mode. And then I end my turn."


	24. Vigil

"Oh Ra…" Malik suddenly gasped. Keeping watch over the unconscious Ryou Bakura for the past six hours, he had seen no change in his condition. The red haze that covered him from the waist down had not increased or decreased. Until now, of course. "Isis! Everybody! Come quickly!"

He dashed to the door, shouting louder.

"Now!"

"What is it?" Isis answered, rushing from another room, where she had been seeing to her guests' needs.

"Look!" he just pointed as Yugi, Jonouchi, Anzu, and Honda gathered around the stone slab where Ryou's body lay. The red haze had spread, considerably so, within a mere instant. Everything below his cheeks was tinted red.

"What happened?" Jou asked.

"Did all of that happen at once?" Rishid asked, standing behind them.

"Yes!" Malik answered, exasperated.

"If this were duel monsters, he would have had to loose almost half his life points in a single attack!" Yugi gasped. "Only a monster like Kaiba's blue eyes ultimate dragon could do that."

"Well, something happened…" Anzu trembled as she spoke.

"He's not dead yet, is he?" Honda asked.

"No." Isis quickly replied. "There are still a few inches of his body that aren't tinted in red. It is still possible that he might survive."

"That's right. We only see his life. We do not know that of his competitor." Rishid reminded them. "We do not know how much damage he has caused to them."

"Yes." Malik nodded as well, attempting to be hopeful when the situation looked bleak. He placed his fingers gently on Ryou's neck, again testing for a pulse. It was still there, but it was weak, and fading fast.

"But we must let fate play its game." Isis solemnly replied. "This is a battle that he must win, on his own. We must merely be ready to help him when he returns."

"If he returns." Honda sighed, tilting his head back. "God! Why would he do this in the first place? Why come half-way across the world, cross over to the world of the dead, to say goodbye to someone that tried to kill you for years?"

"Honda's right! He should be happy!" Jonouchi exclaimed. "Just think of how much Yugi had to sacrifice for him! He should be grateful that the pharaoh finally kicked the thief's sorry ass back to the shadow realm!"

Yugi's eyes fell to the floor.

"Jou, that's enough." He finally whispered. "Please…"

The friends exchanged a strange glance, and Jonouchi quieted his outburst. He looked at his best friend quizzically.

"That's exactly what we all thought. We thought we were setting Ryou free." Yugi finally continued, his voice surprisingly stern. "He never said anything, so I… I thought that's what he thought too. But it's clear, just from him coming here, that we must have been wrong."

"What are you saying?" Honda turned, glaring at Yugi. "That the pharaoh should have lost?"

"Of course not!" Yugi jumped. "He was trying to destroy the world! Of course he should have been stopped! But, even after he was, no one really thought about how big a change it had to have been for Ryou. We were all focused on helping the pharaoh move to the afterlife, and… and what it meant for him and me."

Everyone glanced around at each other.

"No one even bothered to ask Ryou how he felt. He had another soul inside of him for a long time too. And what did we do? We went back to school, and pretended that none of it ever happened. I know I've been pretty quiet these past few weeks, but did any of you even talk to Ryou since we left Egypt?"

Jonouchi rubbed the back of his head.

"Well, no." he confessed. "But he still should've been happy!"

"I didn't either."

"No… I guess we didn't." Anzu finally confessed as well.

"We're the closest friends he's ever had." Yugi sighed. "And we didn't even say a word to him."

They nodded guiltily.

"In fact, for the most part, unless the evil spirit of the ring was trying to take over, none of us really talked to him." Yugi surprised himself with those words. "All of last year, after Battle City, before the trouble with the Oricalchos and the battle with Dartz, I didn't even notice if Ryou was at school. He was just so… quiet."

"I didn't pay any attention either." Anzu sighed.

"I bumped into him once or twice." Honda recalled. "But he never said anything. Ever. You know, I think the teacher said something about him being in the hospital. But I can't remember."

"I don't remember either."

"Guys!" Jonouchi shouted, attempting to break them out of their sudden depression. "Ryou Bakura's just like that. He is quiet! Hell, he's got that whole apartment to himself! And for once, that spirit wasn't taking over! He was probably just so relieved that he didn't know what to say!"

"His whole apartment to himself…" Anzu sighed. "Jou, that's right."

"Of course it's right." He arched his eyebrow and gave a cocky smile. "Wait, what's right?"

"I think I understand why he came here…" Anzu looked up, catching everyone with her sad eyes. "Guys, the spirit of the millennium ring might have been evil… But I think Ryou felt that was all he had."

The room fell silent.

"All he had?"

"We haven't been very good friends…" she sighed. "Yugi's right. Unless the spirit of the ring was up to no good, none of us even noticed if Ryou existed."

Yugi nodded.

"He has no family. They all died a long time ago, remember? He lives by himself. And we're the closest friends he's ever had." Anzu added. "So when we weren't there… at least the evil spirit was. He was always there."

Some of them nodded, while a few just stood contemplating what Anzu had just said.

"Maybe that's why he always seemed to have the ring, even after I tried to throw it away." Honda whispered. "If that was the only thing that gave me company, I'd probably want it back too. Hell, I'd probably search the forest around Pegasus' castle until I found it again."

Yugi only nodded. He drew a deep breath, and let out a long sigh.

"Isis, fate didn't bring Ryou here." He turned, and met Isis' solemn gaze with his big amethyst-colored eyes. "We did."

His head drooped to the floor, while Malik put an arm around his sister for more support.

"All those years, we thought we were being his friend. But in the end, we're the ones that drove him to do this… this ritual." Yugi continued. "It's no wonder Ryou wanted to say goodbye. I didn't want to say goodbye to the pharaoh. And Ryou's saying goodbye to the only friend he's ever really known."

"Yugi, you can't be serious!" Jonouchi shouted one last time.

"Yes. I'm very serious." He said quickly, and walked over to where Ryou lay. The light hadn't changed since it overtook his chest and neck. "When he gets out of this, we need to be here. We really need to be here for him!"

"You're right." Anzu exclaimed, joining Yugi next to the stone slab. "We need to be the friends Ryou needs, the friends he's needed for a long time."

Honda lowered his eyes to the floor.

"Yeah. You're right, Yugi." He weakly added.

Even Jonouchi, who argued with them for the past hour, eventually joined his friends in their vigil.

"I knew they would be able to help." Malik rubbed his sister's shoulder encouragingly.

"Yes. You were right, brother." She smiled, although her expression was rather empty. "I only worry that it might be too late…"

"No." Malik quickly stopped his sister's concern. "The power of friendship will win in the end. Fate has decreed that."

She weakly nodded, and turned back to the body of Ryou Bakura and the red light that covered almost everything.


	25. Wall of Illusion

Ryou stood in the chamber of Osiris, facing the lord of the dead himself. The challenge was duel monsters, and the duel was nearing its final stages. Ryou, with one monster face down on his side of the field, was barely standing. His life points had been reduced to 900 in the last turn. One more direct hit, and he would lose.

Defeat, of course, would surely mean his death. Not once, but twice, as in accordance with Egyptian law. As were the terms of the challenge – he would face the same fate as the one he was fighting for. And Bakura, the king of thieves, had already been sentenced to have his body and heart devoured by Ammut.

The Lord of the Dead was faring better, although his life points were also low. After sacrificing so much to bring out the most powerful monsters in his deck, Osiris only had 1700 life points remaining. It was almost twice that of Ryou's, but should the tide turn, only one monster would be needed to seal his fate as well.

Ryou drew a deep breath.

Should he manage to do that, and defeat Osiris, his yami would be given life, in a body of his own, and could return with Ryou to the land of the living. It was the ultimate duel, with the ultimate stakes.

And it was still anybody's game.

"It's your move, Osiris…" Ryou announced weakly.

The deity drew his next card.

"I see." Osiris glanced at the card in his hand, and set it, along with another card, on the field. "I play these two cards, face down, and now, my great sphinx will attack your face down monster!"

He pointed at the tiny card, and his mammoth beast lunged forward. Its yellow mane and wings trailed behind sharpened fangs and claws. And the ground trembled with its massive footsteps.

Theinen the Great Sphinx slashed through the card.

"Now you are unprotected." Osiris added, while the dust from the attack settled.

"Not so fast…" Ryou gasped, choking on that very dust. "My monster may be destroyed… but not without a price!"

In an instant before it disappeared, Ryou's monster was revealed. A wall of flesh, with a human face, it was clearly the Wall of Illusion.

"And the Wall of Illusion has a special effect. Any attacking monster goes back to the owner's hand…" he smiled. "And since your monster needed so… so much to bring it out… It's going to stay in your hand…"

Osiris froze, as his creature disappeared from the field, and the card reappeared in his hand. The loss of his monster was about to leave his life points unprotected.

"I must end my turn." Osiris answered.

"Come on Ryou!" Bakura cheered again from the sidelines "You can win it! You can win it all!"

"Silence!" Anubis shouted, thrusting his foot into Bakura's back, and tightening his grip on the chains. The jackal-headed deity struck the thief in the face, pulling him up. "You will be silent!"

"I'll be whatever I damn want!"

Knocking him to the ground again, Anubis pressed his staff against the thief's neck.

"And you will be punished!"

Ryou tried to tune out the distractions. He knew this was going to be the last move of the duel, and he wanted to make certain he made the best choices.

"Yami… this… this move is for you…" he whispered. "And you… you can come home with me… and neither of us will ever be alone again…"

He closed his eyes, and drew a card from his deck.

He looked at the card, and smiled.

"This is it, Osiris." Ryou whispered. "This is the end…"


	26. The End of Anubis

Ryou stared at his hand. Within his control were all the cards he needed to make a final move on the lord of the dead.

As much as the jackal-headed Anubis tried, he couldn't silence the thief's uproar. And although he was constantly being struck and beaten, Bakura couldn't silence himself.

"This is it, Osiris…" Ryou smiled, and slid a card into his duel disk. "I play this card face down, and then activate this magic card – Card Destruction!"

Osiris nodded. He knew the effect of this card. Both players had to put their entire decks in the graveyard. And at such a critical juncture in the duel, it could cause someone to lose an all-important monster or magic card.

"I discard my hand into the graveyard, and now… now that my monsters are gone, and I have a new hand… I… I activate the magic card I played on the field…"

Osiris said nothing.

"I play Monster Reincarnation!"

A light appeared above his graveyard. Ryou couldn't help but dwell on the irony that he would draw this card at this point in the game. It was a card very similar to the one that the pharaoh played in his ceremonial duel against Yugi, and it was the card that Yugi knew the pharaoh would play.

On the plane back from Egypt, Ryou remembered what Yugi said. He said that he chose that card, because it described what was wrong… that a spirit should not return to life, and it put the entire duel into perspective.

This time, Ryou thought to himself, it means exactly the opposite.

"And this card allows me to pull a monster back from my graveyard… as long as I discard a card from my new hand… And I choose a card that I just sacrificed in the last turn."

A heavy blue cloud appeared on the field. To Ryou, there was no better card to play on this, the last turn of the duel. A powerful jackal-headed beast appeared on his side of the field, adorned with layers of golden jewelry and funerary relics.

Anubis stared at the beast as though he were looking into a mirror.

"What is the meaning of this madness!" he gasped, releasing his tight grasp on Bakura's chains. The thief just smirked. His hikari must have had that planned from the very beginning. The beast responsible for bringing him here would be the one responsible for letting him go.

"I summon The End of Anubis!"

Osiris studied the monster carefully. Its attack strength was 2500, but it possessed no defensive strength at all. And as long as it remained on the field, no monsters, traps, or spells that targeted a card in the graveyard could be played.

"Take… take a good look at what's going to finish you off… Osiris. It has more than enough attack points to… to end this… and then you have to honor my… my conditions." Ryou added, as the massive fiend roared.

Anubis turned away, his eyes burning at the very sight of this wicked copy. Regardless, he could still feel its presence. The demon readied his claws, and pointed them at the Lord of the Dead.

"You will have to let my… my yami go free…"

"This duel is not over yet, mortal." Osiris answered quickly.

"Oh, I'm not attacking yet… I… I know you have two face-down trap cards… And one of those could be… could be something terrible." Ryou answered. "And that is why I have this."

Ryou held another magic card from his hand.

"Destroying my old hand… was a good idea. It allowed me to draw my second Mystical Space Typhoon. This lets me destroy one of those trap cards…" Ryou smiled. "And I choose the first one you set down."

The card Osiris had played was revealed. It was called Curse of Aging, a trap card that allows a player to decrease the attack and defense of all monsters on the opponent's side of the field by 500 until the end of the turn. With this monster, though, it would have made little difference.

"I was hoping you'd choose that one." Osiris smiled, watching Ryou Bakura ponder the consequences of his choice. "This duel is over."

"What?" Ryou gasped.

Bakura gasped as well. His words stuck in his throat, choking him for a moment. The irony would be something neither one of them could swallow.

"I activate my other face down card. The Judgment of Anubis."

Ryou blinked. The irony of this card far outweighed anything that came before it.

"This trap only works on spell cards that can destroy other spell or trap cards. And in order to activate it's effect, I discard one card from my hand." Osiris explained to his opponent. "This negates the activation of your card. But that is not all this trap can do."

Ryou only gulped.

"This card also allows me to destroy one face-up monster on your side of the field, and I can inflict damage to you equal to the attack of that destroyed monster." Osiris announced. Ryou couldn't find his voice to even acknowledge the card effect. "In your attempt to reincarnate the monster you call 'yami', you relied on bringing a creature back from the dead. Not only was that creature a mockery of the gods, but it is the same demonic beast that will ultimately destroy you!"

Ryou remained frozen. He tried to move, or to speak. But he couldn't even respond.

The End of Anubis, beaten by the Judgment of Anubis, simply lowered its head. The servant of Osiris had spoken. He bent down, bowing to the Lord of the Dead. A few moments later, the creature had disappeared from the field.

The total of his attack strength was taken out of Ryou's life points.

It left him with far less than zero, and Ryou collapsed onto the stone floor of the chamber.

"No…" Bakura gasped, lunging forward.

Feeling his prisoner move, Anubis grabbed the chains before the thief could reach the podium. He reeled the thrashing spirit back to his feet like a fish out water.

"No!" Bakura shouted again, but there was nothing he could do.

The duel was over. And as hard as he fought, as determined as he was… Ryou Bakura had lost.


	27. Always a Chance

"No…" Anzu was the first to gasp, as she saw the red light cover Ryou Bakura's body completely.

Isis covered her mouth, shaking her head in disbelief. She trembled, almost falling backwards into Malik's waiting arms. Rishid moved to steady her as well, lowering his head in respect for the boy would soon be deceased. At any other time, he would pray in Osiris' name, that the boy could safely find his way to the Hall of Ma'at. But there was no need for that now. He was already there.

"It can't be." Honda whispered under his breath.

"Did he just…" Jonouchi gasped, not wanting to finish his thoughts.

"He… he lost…" Yugi finished, his voice quivering as much as his small body. He leaned into the stone slab to keep his balance. "He lost…"

Honda felt for a pulse. For the moment he was still alive, but each heartbeat waited longer than the last.

"Isis?" Anzu looked up. "What… what's going to happen?"

The former wielder of the millennium tauk shared worried glances with both of her brothers.

"The ritual does not dictate specifics…" she whispered. "All I know is that he who breaks the barrier between this life and the next, and is discovered, will be severely punished."

"As for a challenge between a mortal and a god, we can only assume the worst." Rishid added. "If there were any terms made, they would be fulfilled."

"You mean, he's gonna' die?" Jonouchi finally asked, shaking his head in disbelief.

Malik nodded sadly, without saying a word.

"Isn't there anything we can do?" Yugi shouted, spinning around quickly. "We followed the pharaoh into the world of memory, right? We can… We can follow Ryou into the world of the dead!"

"Yeah!" the other three shouted in unison, wondering why no one had thought of that before now.

"If being with the pharaoh taught me one thing, it's that there's always a way to win a game, just when the going gets tough! If he were here, he'd go! And I'll do the same."

"We're with you, Yugi." Jonouchi quickly stepped up behind his friend.

"Me too." Honda added.

"And me." Anzu replied as well.

Isis, however, only hung her head and raised her hands, stopping them from rushing forward.

"I am sorry…" Isis whispered weakly. "But you cannot do that."

"Why not?"

"Only one person can enter this realm at a time. Until Ryou either returns or dies… no one else can enter the land of the dead through the portal created by the millennium stone…"

"Then… there's nothing we can do?" Yugi didn't want to believe it. None of them wanted to believe it.

"As I said before… it is in fate's hands now." She sighed, regretfully. "Perhaps fate will show mercy…"

Everyone in the underground sanctuary nodded, although it didn't seem very likely.

"Remember, my friends…" Isis smiled a little, and held up the necklace that Jonouchi had found in Ryou's pocket. "He still has the heart scarab. And with it, his soul may still be protected from death…"

"That's right…" Yugi whispered. "He can still pull through this. Ryou… can still pull through this."


	28. Bakura's Plea

"… Ryou…" Bakura gasped, jumping to his feet. He tried to rush to his former host's side, but Anubis kept a tight grasp on his chains. The more he struggled, the more painful a struggle it became. Ripples of energy surged through the metal, tearing at his skin like an immortal fire. "Get off me you dog-headed freak! Let me go!"

The thief continued to resist, watching Ryou's lifeless body out of the corner of his eye. Since the duel ended, his spirit hadn't even moved.

"If he's going to die with me, let me fucking see him!" Bakura shouted. "How hard is that?"

"Osiris sees no need to show mercy to the likes of you." Anubis snarled back. "Your request will not be granted!"

"It's not my request! It's his, damn you!" Bakura stretched his neck around, thrusting his body towards Ryou's again. "I didn't bring him here! He did that to himself! He wanted to see me! At least… At least honor that!"

Anubis restrained him again, pushing his body onto the stone floor. Behind him, the tribunal of forty-two gods once again began to take their seats. Osiris had retired to his podium, proceeding over the jurisdiction of dead souls. Thoth had obtained another tablet, and returned quickly to his post.

Bakura watched, as a pair of Anubis' underlings lifted the weak Ryou to his feet. His head fell forward, still giving no conscious response. They turned him to face Osiris, as though he were about to be judged.

"Kill me!" Bakura shouted, trying to interrupt the next tribunal. "Isn't that what you wanted! Kill me now!"

"Your time will come, thief." Anubis snarled, and slammed his staff into Bakura's back again. Bakura refused to acknowledge the pain, and pushed himself off the ground.

"Do whatever you want with me! Let that bastard devour my fucking heart! But he doesn't deserve it!"

"Silence!" Anubis struck him in the back of the head. The thief flew forward, still caught in the chains.

"No!" Bakura shouted even louder, resisting with every last ounce of energy that he had. "He doesn't deserve to die with me!"

"Silence." Osiris finally intervened. "He entered this world on his own free will. His intentions were pure, and the lord of wisdom will record that. The curse upon the name Bakura, which has lasted for thousands of years, will be broken. His name will forever be remembered as the completion. But that cannot erase the terms of the challenge, as inscribed in stone."

The lord of the dead stood over the prisoner.

"There is no need for a trial, nor the weighing of his heart." He announced, as Ma'at lowered herself from the scale. She took the feather from the second dish, and gently slid it back into her headband. "As dictated before the duel began, the mortal, Ryou Bakura, has judged himself. And he will receive the same punishment as befitting the Bakura, the king of thieves."

"You can't do that!" Bakura shouted, struggling again. The white energy coursed through his body, making his white hair stand even more on end, but he ignored the pain. "You can't do that! You call yourself a God! Only a fucking demon would do that!"

"Of that, you would know." Osiris answered, silencing Bakura for a moment.

And the deity was right. How often did Bakura do exactly what he was pleading for the lord of the dead to not do? In thousands of years, he hadn't shown mercy. So how could he expect Osiris to show mercy on his behalf? It was, just as the god had said, unthinkable.

Through the last few moves of the duel, something else was also made very clear. Bakura couldn't get it out of his mind.

Ryou was trying to resurrect him. And in the end, he was the monster that destroyed Ryou. His hikari, a pure soul that would have been destined for eternal paradise, was now tainted with darkness. And Bakura only had himself to blame. Ryou said it himself. He came here… to see him again. It was for him. It was because of him that he would die.

"Please…" Bakura dropped to his knees, powerless, and with little rage. "Just let him go."

Anubis loosened the chains a little.

"I… I will go quietly." Bakura finally lowered his head, and glanced in the direction of Ammut. He patted his chest with a defeated touch. "Here I am. Take my heart, and devour it. Just… Please, don't take his…"

Osiris stood, watching what happened. Deep in his soul, he was touched by the sudden softness in the thief's heart. But one act of kindness after three thousand years is not enough to sway the eternal judge. And one plea for mercy is not enough to save the life of the one who condemned himself.

"Ammut, devourer of the wicked." Osiris raised his hands. "Carry out the sentence, immediately."

The crocodile-headed beast walked forward from the hall of Ma'at. She had a smile on her face, pleased to end the life of the most sinister criminal that had ever walked the earth.

"Take the thief first. He who followed the darkness will continue to follow it."

Bakura only nodded, giving the unconscious hikari one last glance before turning to face his fate. The underlings carried the boy from the platform, standing behind the chained thief.

"I… I'm sorry, Ryou…" he whispered, as he stood before Ammut. He clutched the necklace his former host had given him, and could almost feel Ryou's weak heart beating within him. "Everything I ever did. All the pain I caused you, all the times I hurt you. Please, just know this, before you die… I'm… I'm sorry…"


	29. Final Judgement

Anubis let the chains fall slack, as Ammut reached out her lion-like claws. She touched the chest of the thief, in order to slit it open. But suddenly, her body grew cold, and her eyes trembled with uncertain fear. She stopped.

"Lord Osiris!" Ammut called out, shuffling her hippopotamus-like feet backwards slightly. "I beg your forgiveness. But I cannot devour him!"

Bakura raised his solemn head, scarcely believing what he just heard. His hands fell to his side in surprise, the necklace falling just above his heart.

"What!" Osiris bellowed, shaking the entire holy chamber. The tribunal whispered amongst themselves, also in shock. "What do you mean, you cannot?"

Anubis strode towards Ammut, pointing his staff.

"You are ordered to devour the souls of the wicked! How can you deny your duty?" he shouted, his tone as stern as that of Osiris.

"He holds a heart scarab." Ammut lowered her head. "It has therefore been decreed that he be protected from a second death."

"He what!" Osiris was infuriated. His shouts rocked the foundation of the Hall of Ma'at, and feeling the tremors, Ryou started to regain consciousness.

"That is impossible." Anubis added, staring at the body of the thief. "His mortal body fell on the spiritual battle ground of Kul Elna, village of thieves. The pharaoh had no such protection, and certainly, this criminal cannot, lest he stole it from Horus himself!"

"My lord, one carries with them now what they brought with them from death. And he carries with him a protective amulet." Ammut pleaded. She bowed her head respectfully, but her body only trembled. "Should I take his heart, I will cease to exist!"

Ryou heard the words of the gods, but could scarcely acknowledge them. His mind was still far too hazy from the duel. He knew they were both about to be devoured, but he couldn't understand why they were arguing about it.

"Protective amulet?" Bakura gasped, not sure what they were talking about either. He looked down. The only thing that hung from his neck was the tiny piece of jewelry Ryou had given him. Ryou hadn't said anything about what it was – just that his father had given it to him before he died.

He stared at it for the longest time, attempting to remember where he had seen it before. Eventually it struck him. It was on the body of the mummy he dragged out from the tomb. It was under several layers of wrapping, which had been unceremoniously torn off as he dragged it through the open roads.

"A scarab given to pharaohs to… to help them in the afterlife?" he gasped, still not believing it. "Ryou… gave it to me… on… on purpose!"

"I cannot devour him." Ammut lowered her head. "You will have to find another punishment."

She returned to the Hall of Ma'at, not even looking back at Osiris. The lord of the dead could not believe it.

"Anubis, was he wearing that when you retrieved him from his three thousand year prison?" Osiris questioned the deity that served as his right hand.

"No, my lord. He was not." Anubis answered. "He could only have gotten it from one source."

The jackal-headed god pointed his staff at the barely conscious Ryou.

"It must have belonged to him."

Ryou blinked.

"…w..what b..belong..ged to me?" he weakly asked, still trying to focus his eyes.

"Ryou!" Bakura shouted, thankful for the soft voice that cut through the chamber's thunder.

"He must have given the scarab to the thief before the trial." Anubis exclaimed. "What can we do, my lord?"

Osiris sat back down, and let out a long sigh.

"We can do nothing, I am afraid." Osiris answered. The god let his hands fall weakly at his side. "He who wears the scarab is protected from a second death."

Bakura, as well, could not believe it. His own heart almost fell through the chamber at those words. And if he could not reach his second death, that meant Ryou would not either.

"However, his crimes are so infamous that he cannot be led into the western kingdom. He cannot be allowed to reach paradise." Osiris continued. "The scales of Ma'at have spoken. His soul is so wicked that it could not be weighed!"

"Then what should be done, my lord?" Anubis asked again, almost pleading. Such actions were unheard of. Never in eternity had such a predicament arrived in the court of Osiris.

"Anubis." Osiris ordered plainly and unemotionally. "Bring the prisoners forward."

The jackal-headed deity nodded, and ordered the prisoners to stand side by side, facing the lord of the dead. "I, myself, will determine their punishment."

Anubis personally thrust the thief Bakura back onto the platform where he was originally standing trial. The two carrying Ryou Bakura dropped him atop the platform as well. Unable to stand on his own power, he slumped to his yami's feet.

Bakura, even with chains wrapped tightly around his wrists, bent down and picked up his hikari. And he would hold him until he was strong enough to stand on his own power.

"Ryou Bakura." Osiris addressed him directly. "It appears you have bested me. Not in the game of duel monsters, but in another duel entirely."

Ryou blinked wearily. The last thing he remembered was The End of Anubis surrendering on the field. And now, Osiris was telling him that he… he won?

"Before you even challenged me, you made certain that your 'yami' would not be sentenced under my hand. You could have left this realm, undiscovered, and simply waited for his return." Osiris stated. "But you did not. You showed not only true kindness, but also true sacrifice. You would rather have died a second death with him, than live without him."

Ryou leaned into his yami, trying to stand on his own, but he was still too weak.

"You gave your heart to protect him. And I cannot overrule that." Osiris lowered his eyes.

Anubis could not believe what he was hearing, and neither could Thoth. The scribe struggled to quickly write down Osiris' words, to catch up from his state of frozen disbelief.

"He… he is free?" Ryou looked up at the god weakly. He smiled, resting his weary head on his yami's shoulder. Tentatively, he put a little weight on his own feet. They withstood the strain, albeit poorly.

"No." Osiris quickly answered. "A challenge was made, and it must be honored. I cannot bestow upon this criminal the gift of second life. And whatever punishment is decreed, you must still share is fate."

Bakura looked down at his hikari, suddenly quite concerned. Neither of them knew what the deity had in mind.

"But because of your actions, I will indeed show mercy."

The chamber was silent.

"And so your punishment will be this – Bakura, king of thieves and stealer of souls, you are sentenced to remain forever in a state of imprisonment. You will neither have life, nor will you have death. You will be sealed for all eternity in the millennium ring, a spirit that can never be laid to rest!"

Bakura made no sound. He only looked down at Ryou.

"And you, Ryou Bakura, the mortal that would so readily give up his life for another, you have done so. You will remain imprisoned inside the ring as well, for all eternity."

Ryou nodded weakly. There was nothing he could say either.

"Just as the thief Bakura will never know the pain of a second death, Ryou Bakura, never will you know the wonders of paradise. But they will forever have each other, and that is how fate decrees it."

The tribunal was silent as Osiris lowered his head. Thoth recorded these last few words, and carefully set his stone at the base of the podium.

"This trial has ended."

No sooner had Osiris ceased his voice, the pair disappeared from the platform, leaving behind no trace of the massive battle that was just fought in the Hall of Ma'at. Anubis left, to bring in the next waiting soul.


	30. Aftershock

Meanwhile, Yugi and the others kept a close vigil over the body of Ryou Bakura. His body remained completely covered in red for what felt like an eternity, before the light disappeared completely.

"Look!" Honda was the first to exclaim, though everyone took immediate notice.

"It's gone!"

"He's gonna' wake up now!" Jonouchi shouted, and pressed his hands into the stone.

"Ryou?"

"Oh thank Ra…" Isis breathed a sigh of relief.

"It's finally over!" Malik sighed as well, letting a smile replace his usually stoic demeanor.

They all huddled closer to Ryou. But he didn't wake up. He didn't move. In fact, he didn't even breathe.

"… W..wait…" Yugi suddenly gasped. His hands trembling, he put his hand on Ryou's neck. He couldn't feel a pulse. "… I… I… no… No…"

Yugi fell back into Jonouchi, trying to shake the reality of the situation from his head. The boy on the stone slab couldn't be dead… He just couldn't be.

"Yugi?" Anzu gasped, trembling as well. Her voice grew louder as she started to panic. "Yugi!"

She put her shaking hand on Ryou's neck as well. She couldn't feel a pulse either.

"Oh god, no…" Honda gulped, shaking Ryou's body gently. "Come on, wake up! Ryou, do you hear me? Wake up!"

Jonouchi did the same, even harder. But it was no use. The white-haired boy didn't stir. And not a single breath escaped his lifeless lips.

"Oh god… Oh god…" Anzu buried her head in Honda's shoulder, the nearest she could find. She couldn't stop the tears from falling, and neither could anybody else. "Oh god, no… We… we drove him to do this! We killed him… Oh god, we killed him!"

Her cries were so intense; Malik feared they might tear the cave apart.

Yugi fell to his knees, leaning against the stone slab.

"…we… we killed him…" he repeated, his tears swelling in his throat. He choked every word he attempted to speak.

"Please, my friends." Isis attempted to console them. "You could have done nothing to stop fate. Just as the pharaoh's duel was predestined, so… so was Ryou Bakura's…"

Jonouchi slumped down next to Yugi, his face buried in his hands.

"Don't try and tell us that." He whispered back. "If we would'a done more… Just a little more, he wouldn't have come here."

"He… he might have stayed in Domino City… and… and not…" Anzu couldn't even finish without swallowing her own tears.

"I do not think there was anything you could have done." Rishid replied. Malik didn't dare say anything.

His words fell on deaf ears, though.

"He's really gone…" Honda whispered, still numb.

"He's… the little guy's really…" Jonouchi leaned back, allowing tears to stream down his cheeks, behind his neck.

Anzu only nodded, as did Yugi, who was too distraught to say anything else.

Isis wished she could comfort them more, but there were some things not even fate could accomplish.


	31. Funeral March

Since he had no living family, eventually the decision was reached to bury Ryou alongside the millennium items. That way, he would still be close to the one person, if the spirit of the millennium ring could even be called that, he felt was truly his friend.

Rishid carried the body outside into the desert, with the rest of them following close by.

The sun was just peeking over the horizon, Ra's eyes looking over a new day. But light was the farthest thing from the minds of Yugi and his friends. They knew that Ryou, a light in his own right, would never see another day go by.

"I… can't believe it…" Although hours had passed, Yugi could still barely speak. And of them all, he was being the most vocal. Everyone else kept their comments buried deep in their hearts. Waves of sadness waltzed with guilt, taking each and every one of them along for the ride.

"The millennium stone was originally buried right here." Isis managed to announce, her voice still trembling, thinking about the boy in Rishid's arms. She felt just as guilty as the other teenagers, although it wasn't as noticeable. After all, she informed him of the ritual, and ultimately, she felt his life would be held in her heart when it was weighed against the feather of truth.

"This way." Malik guided them. Their procession weaved between large boulders and small rocks, many of which were simply tossed aside while Ryou was digging out the seven golden items.

They nodded and followed.

Carefully, and with a solemn heart, Rishid lowered the body of Ryou Bakura onto the millennium stone. His cold, lifeless body stood out uncomfortably against the warm sand, causing everyone to cry again.

"… Here… we… should put the millennium ring around his neck." Honda eventually volunteered, finding his voice. "I… I won't throw it away this time. I… I promise."

The others nodded, and Honda carefully climbed into the small trench. He removed the ring from the stone. As he lifted it slowly, the metal spikes skidded against the rock, pointing to the millennium items around it.

Shocked, and rightfully so, Honda dropped the ring.

"What is it?" Malik asked softly, hearing the discord of metal crashing against stone.

"It moved!" he jumped back, temporarily forgetting the despair of the moment. "It pointed to the items, and it moved!"

"That's impossible, though." Isis breathed a heavy sigh. "The items have no more power. Not since the final battle with Zorc, where the pharaoh finally defeated… the thief Bakura."

She glanced back to Ryou, who ultimately paid the price of that battle.

"No, it moved!" Honda shouted again, crawling quickly out of the hole. He couldn't look at Ryou or the ring. He continued talking nervously. "It moved. I saw it move. I know it moved…"

"I'll do it…" Bravely, Yugi stepped forward to put the ring around his friend's neck. It was, of course, the least he could do.

But as he bent down to pick it up, a strange sensation filled his body. The last time Yugi held the millennium ring, it was deathly cold, indicative of the emptiness inside of it. But this time, something was very different. He could literally feel heat radiating off of the ring.

"H..Honda's right!" Yugi gasped. "Something's wrong with the ring!"

"That is impossible." Isis answered again, finally climbing onto the stone to see for herself. She picked the millennium item off the ground, and instantly felt the same sensation that had crawled through Yugi.

The ring was warm to the touch, as if something, or someone, had been put inside it!

"Malik!" she exclaimed. "There's something in the ring!"

"But the pharaoh destroyed the evil spirit." Her brother quickly responded, climbing into the ditch that remained of the great underground temple. The others quickly followed suit. He held the ring in his hands, and could not deny it. There was a strong sense of life inside the golden treasure, something that had not been there before.

"I don't think it's the spirit…" Yugi finally whispered.

"You don't think…" Jonouchi glanced at the ring, and then back down to Ryou. He shook his head in disbelief. It just couldn't be.

"Nah…" Honda shook his head as well.

"But… what if…" Anzu looked between them several times.

"I... I don't know…"

"Do you really think?"

"It could be…"

"Nah…"

"well… maybe…"

They all exchanged glances. And finally, after the longest time, Yugi cocked a small smile.

"It is." Yugi finally decided. There was no other way. "It's Ryou."

They exchanged glances again. The heat from the ring made him smile, even amidst such tragic circumstances. It was so strong that perhaps, Ryou wasn't alone in there.

"And I think…" Yugi paused for a moment, words and thoughts running through his mind. "I think he's happy…"


	32. The Gift of Eternity

Ryou Bakura woke up in his yami's arms.

He blinked a couple of times, trying to figure out where he was. His hands were lighter, freed from the chains he had been wrapped in. But that was all he could feel at first. He barely remembered what happened in the chamber of Osiris after the duel had ended. The god was talking to them both, about to punish them. But Ryou, as disoriented as he was, couldn't remember what he said.

"Am… am I alive?" he whispered dryly, to no one in particular. He didn't really expect anyone to answer either.

"If you can call it that." The thief answered, looking down at his hikari.

"Yami?" Ryou jumped up, realizing for the first time that he wasn't alone. "Is that you?"

Bakura nodded, leaning back against the nearby wall. Ryou almost fell from his lap, but he caught the smaller boy before he could crash into the nearby stone.

"Oh thank goodness… You're all right. We're both all right…" Ryou smiled, and hugged him, oblivious to his surroundings.

At first, Bakura wanted to push him off, but softened after a brief moment. This was, after all, the boy that gave his life so that he wouldn't die. He deserved a lot more credit than Bakura had ever given him. Perhaps now, that should change.

"Do you remember what happened?" he asked carefully, wondering how the boy would react to learning his fate.

"… I… I lost the duel, but… but why aren't we… dead?"

"Oh, we're dead." His yami answered, holding the boy close. "But only once. Thanks to you. We'll… never die again."

Ryou sat up, and blinked, finally taking in his surroundings. They seemed oddly familiar, and he tried to place them in his damaged memory. It looked like the inside of his yami's soul room, but a lot darker. The walls were made of grey stone, like an old tomb. They were cold, as though it hadn't received light in thousands of years.

"You saved my life." Bakura sighed, leaning against the wall. "I never thought I'd be so glad to see this place again."

"This… place?" Ryou looked around. Suddenly, he understood. "We're… inside the ring, aren't we?"

He nodded.

"Yup."

Ryou studied his yami's face with curiosity. For a moment, he feared he would be struck or beaten. But the thief appeared strangely content about the situation.

"Are you all right, yami?" Ryou asked.

"I think so." He sighed. The thief made no sudden movements, as none were necessary. "We're here for eternity, you know."

Ryou looked down.

"I tried to save you… not get you imprisoned… I'm sorry. I… I just wanted to… to be with you again…"

"It's not that bad, Ryou. Really." Bakura managed a smile. "This time, it won't be nearly as lonely."

He looked down at Ryou, and lifted the boy's chin up. Their eyes met. And it felt like years before either one said anything.

"Thank you… hikari." He smiled. "For everything you did…"

Ryou blushed a little.

"It's nothing, yami… really… I…" he didn't know exactly how to finish. Both of them simply stared at each other for a moment.

"No, it is." He replied quickly. "I didn't deserve it. The duel. The heart scarab. I didn't deserve any of it."

Ryou thought back to the trial, and the courage he had learned from his yami. At the time the duel started, he wondered if the spirit of the ring had learned anything from him.

He felt Bakura's hand gently touching his chin, and knew in his heart that he had. Just like Yugi's yami, the pharaoh of Egypt, the king of thieves had learned compassion.

He just needed more time, and someone to care about.

"Yes, you do. I… I think you deserve it…"

"You know, you're the only one that's ever cared about me… Ever." Bakura sighed. Thoughts of the village slaughter, the soldiers, even the gods, filtered through his mind. He too, didn't know how to finish. "I…"

"You're… just not used to it…" Ryou finished for him.

Bakura eventually nodded. His eyes glanced around the interior of the ring. This was where they were going to remain, until time itself ceased to exist.

"I think you have plenty of time to learn…"Ryou smiled weakly. He watched his yami's eyes drift, but wasn't sure exactly what he was thinking.

"You're right." He smiled in return, and he pulled his rescuer close. Ryou blinked with surprise.

Bakura rubbed the boy's back as gently as he could, finally pulling him into a tender embrace. It was the least he could do, for the companion he always wanted but never knew he had.

"You're right…" he whispered again, letting a smile shine through the surrounding darkness. "I have a whole eternity to learn."


End file.
